URU CHRONICLE: Alliteration
by UruExplorer DTC
Summary: An explorer and a Bahro are thrown back in time to 1825! These are their adventures! NOW UP: Chapter Five. Daisuke and Kaiyumi explore the abandoned Great Zero and travel up the Great Shaft. Meanwhile, Adale and her army arrive in the here and now.
1. Teaser Trailer

**TEASER_ _ _|**

"All my life, I've been told 'You can't escape destiny. You can't escape Fate.'

_A Sword is removed from it's sheath, revealing a blade made of crystal_

If that's the case, Then Someone somewhere must really hate me with a vengance.

_A boy, standing alone in the darkness, looks up at his unseen opponent. _

I've been declared a fugitive by people who hate what they can't understand.

_The crystalline sword in his hand glows fiercely, illuminating the surrounding environment with it's cyan glow._

My name- My name is Daisuke. I've been torn from the world I've known. Twice.

_A blinding explosive flash of green. A swirling blue fragmented portal._

I've made friends-

_**FLASH! **__A young girl of eleven- Yeesha. __**FLASH!**__ A small bahro- Tomoki. __**FLASH!**__ An older girl of sixteen- Kaiyumi._

I've made enemies-

_A "twisted", Nekisahl Bahro, wearing metallic body armor._

I've seen things beyond all imagination.

_A Skeletal Quab roaring at The two Jungle explorers._

I've met my own ancestors-

_A pair of twins smile at a camera._

Saved them from the shadows of the night.

_The Explorer slashes his Crystal blade at an army of Bahro, flying towards a town in the middle of a night time storm._

And now, I ask one thing.

_The Rivenese girl jumps over a cliff, her hand hastily reaching for the open linking book falling to the ground below._

Look up-

_Yeesha, with a grin on her face, turns to face her companions._

And try to avoid-

_The Armor wearing bahro clashes her claws against the Explorer's Crystal blade._

Any Kind of Temporal Alliteration.

_**URU Chronicles:**__ Alliteration _


	2. Ch1 Time Traveler Extraordinair

_URU Chronicles: Alliteration _

**CHAPTER ONE**_**.**_

All my life, I've been told "You can't escape destiny. You can't escape Fate."

If that's the case, Then Someone somewhere must really hate me with a vengeance.

**AE'GURA ISLE_ _ _| OCTOBER 2007_ _ _| ? POV_ _ _|**

It was all out war, I'd reasoned while watching the bahro swarm the arch from my cozy little spot on the Library Plaza. There were Good Bahro. There were Bad Bahro. They were fighting. It was nothing new, really. We had known this was happening since June...Or was it July?... It had only been that SUMMER (or was it spring?) For crying out loud, and I had already pushed _**that**_ day's events to the far corner's of my mind.

"Why are they doing?" An explorer to my right had asked.

"Isn't it obvious?" Said another. "They're fighting!"

"I hope they don't come over here..." Another explorer worried, thinking back to when Rose and Wheely-

"Come on, I doubt they will!" Yet Another commented with a turn of his head.

The 'battle' had started something in all of us, I'd noted. We were all wearing our Journey Shirts that day, as if some piece of burlap cloth would protect us from the Bahro's sharp claws should they take offence at our presence. A little too late for that now, I'd suspected.

**APRIL 10th, 2008_ _ _| URU OBSESSION'S NEIGHBORHOOD_ _ _| **

I watched as the explorers all shared their goodbyes, and danced and partied until the last possible moment. Then, they left, some to their Reltos, most to the surface. I didn't have my KI on, so no-one noticed as I slipped back to relto. A Party it was.

"I'm staying here." I'd decided.

**JULY 13th, 2008_ _ _| GAHREESEN_ _ _| **

To fully understand, I need to back track a bit.

When first I returned the pillars last, back when this all started, a Bahro started hanging out in my relto.

At first, whenever I spotted him, he linked away. Then, as the months went on, he started venturing closer. I'm positive he was the one who popped into Kirel that one week. I went back to the surface every now and again, for supplies and the like. But for the most part I lived on relto and the ages. Teledahn for sleep. Gira for fresh meat. I have a little garden in Kemo too, The constant rain is a major help.

This bahro, though, he seemed to like the oranges I brought back from my surface trips. Every time I put my groceries down on the hut floor, and turned to return to my normal explorer's gear, the little guy sneaked in and snatched them up. It was quite amusing when I caught him that one time, sitting in the tippy top branches of my pine tree, munching on the fruit. His little blue eyes widened immensely, and he tried juggling the orange about in an attempt to hide the evidence.

I decided to call him Tomoki, after a character from an Anime I was fond of, due to his height difference to mine. Now I know for sure, He doesn't mind the name, certainly a lot easier to say than his real one.

I would invite him along on my random jaunts through the ages, just leave the tab to a book open, and he got the hint.

It was during one of these trips, to Gahreesen for some 'rare-er' meat verities, that we were confronted. Not by a DRC member, not by Yeesha, not even by a D'ni survivor.

No.

The Daughter of the Leader of the Nekisahl, Adale.

**NORMAL POV_ _ _|**

The Explorer, and his Bahro Companion, stop in their tracks somewhere in the middle of the Gahreesen Forrest as a low, deep growl emanates through the tree trunks.

This growl wasn't from a native.

The Explorer pulls a small Shotgun from his backpack and stands back to back with the bahro.  
_  
__ "What do you think?" _reads the expression on the Explorer's face. _"Fight or flight?"  
_  
The Bahro's eyes narrow as it readies it's claws. _"We wait to see what it is first."  
_  
"Turning on a dime." The explorer mutters as he primes his shot gun, and raising it to eye level.

The forest is quiet, not a bird, not a monster, not a sound. Just the duo's own breathing.

Then, a sound reaches their ears: A branch, snapping, from the east.

The explorer swings the shotgun around and fires both barrels.

A Bahro, not much larger than the one by the Explorer's side, dives out of the foliage, the strange armor covering her body was barely scratched by the weapon's wide spread. This bahro is the leader of the armies for the fraction called the Nekisahl, or "Twisted." She snarls at the smaller bahro standing with the explorer, before charging at him.

The explorer fires the gun again at the Nekisahl Bahro as she jumps towards the Bahro, with little effect as the demon comes down on him. The Explorer then jumps onto the her back, trying to keep her away from hurting his friend, the Smaller bahro..

The Nekisahl throws the Explorer off, then turns his claws on him, only to get another shotgun blast to the chest. No damage. The Sandwich tangle is reversed, as the Explorer holds up his Shot gun in an attempt to protect himself from the warrior-ess' claws, and the smaller bahro wraps his arms around the lager's neck in a poor attempt at a strangle hold.

The Nekisahl, annoyed at this turn of events throws herself upright, tossing the smaller bahro into a tree. She then grabs the Explorer, and tosses him into the smaller bahro. The Female warrior then sends a spark of lightning across her claws with what could only be described as a grin.

She arcs the spark over itself several times, all the time chanting a strange chant. Finally, with what could be described as a solid pillar of light between her claws, the Demon tosses the energy at the explorer and his bahro companion, taking them out of existence in a flash of light.

**TAY_ _ _| SURFACE YEAR 1825_ _ _| CATHRINE'S POV/JOURNAL_ _ _|**

I don't know what to think. Honestly, things are a bit... Strange. Abnormal. My sons, Sirrus and Achenar, are dead. One killed in his mad attempt to take his sister's place, the other sacrificed for her sake. Poor Yeesha, She loved them dearly.

But, I digress. Sirrus' actions are not the strangest thing to happen this week. Yesterday, a boy and a strange creature appeared by the link in point in a flash of light unlike any link I have ever seen. It was almost...Mystical in nature. As if the natural laws of linking were warped and twisted to someone's own use.

If the boy and this creature are the cause has yet to be seen, as they are both unconscious currently. Our doctor noted that they appeared to have gone through a struggle before appearing here. Perhaps their linking book was destroyed as they linked, sending them off course?

On the subject of linking books, the boy was carrying a small, thin linking book on his hip. It has a green cover with Yeesha's name written on the cover in a stylized Mandela. Yeesha does not recognize this book, so I suspect they must be either from another branch of the great tree, or, as Atrus's friend believes, they are from a far away future. The former would confirm the creature's existence, as no D'ni on Releeshan has seen such a beast.

Atrus noted that the boy had an old Maintainer's Mark Three Communication device on hand, supporting the latter theory as the device was calibrated to Anna's native English, instead of the current D'ni settings we know they had from our last trip to the Cavern. Also included on the device were ages we have not known to exist. "Relto" and "Minkata" Stand out before the rest, such as the Maintainer's Fortress, the Mushroom world of Teledahn, or Guild Master Kadish's Ahnonay and Er'cana ages.

I do not know what to believe, currently. Yeesha has refused to use her memory amulet since Atrus's friend returned it, leaving me without the memories embedded on the items brought with the boy and his creature as a clue as to what has happened. I don't blame her. What Sirrus did was unforgivable, and Achenar...

She seems fascinated by the creature. I can see Atrus's curiosity brimming behind those saddened eyes. "What is this?" She wonders. "How can I help it?"

Also holding her attention is the boy's linking book. A glimpse at the static filled linking panel reveals an island pillar, surrounded by gaseous clouds. The belt clip attached to the back of the book indicates that it is meant to travel _**with**_ the linker, although how this is possible I do not know. Atrus is equally boggled at the book's formatting, besides the cover and linking panel, moving any part of the book beyond that is impossible, despite the folded corners at the bottom of several pages.

No writer from D'ni could possibly ever write such a book.

**GENERAL POV_ _ _|**

Yeesha looks at the Relto Book and the KI from the boy and her memory amulet in turn, all of which were resting on the table before her. _"Should I, Or shouldn't I?"_ she wonders, reaching out a hand for the book, then withdrawing it immediately. She looks to the girl, with near black hair and green eyes, across from her and frowns. "I can't."

Kaiyumi sighs at her friend. "Yeesha, I know things aren't a-okay for you right now, but I'm curious too, and if you're not going to do it, I will."

Yeesha sends an annoyed look towards Kaiyumi. "Sure, you can try, but even Dad says it was giving his friend a headache."

Kaiyumi shrugs. "What's one tiny memory over a minute compared to fifty over a few hours?"

Yeesha considers this, then slides the amulet to the Rivenese girl. "Don't use it on the book. I want to see what's there before anyone else."

The girl grins. "Well, then, how about I try his watch thing?"

Yeesha nods. "Go ahead."

So, with that, Kaiyumi picks up the Memory amulet, then the KI. The Amulet hums, then her view of the world around her is replaced with a view of two rotating buildings in a flash of light.

_"Who DESIGNED This place?" the boys' voice echoes. "I mean, Really, I can understand a Rotating bridge with two connection points, but JUMPING to a ledge from TWO rock formations?"_

Another flash, now she could see a giant machine built upon a crystal rotating around a large chamber.

_"WAHOO! Go D'ni tech! Haha! NICE! The Great Zero is NOW online! YAHOOOO!"_

There was a third flash, and now Kaiyumi could see a mushroom infested swamp. And those were very LARGE mushrooms.

_"What? What! WHAT! No! It can't...!" The boy's voice was frantic now. "She can't be dead! She Just Can't! She Can't Be Dead!"_

A Fourth Flash, and Kaiyumi dropped the KI with a gasp as the room came back into view.

"You okay?" Yeesha asks.

Kaiyumi gulps. "Not really."

**ELSEWHERE_ _ _| ROOM WHERE THE EXPLORER AND BAHRO ARE AT_ _ _|**

Tomoki the Bahro was having a dream, A dream of **screaming**, _loud. __**Fire and Ice and **__**water!**_ He could see others. **Beasts. **_**Monsters.**__ "So say the Proud!"_ His soul was _torn_, _**ripped and**_** shattered.**_Confusion and __**pain and-**_ Silence.

Tomoki slowly opened one of his sky blue eyes, seeing a cave like wall before him. For a moment, panic overwhelmed his mind and both of his eyes opened wide. The bahro that had attacked them! It must have captured him! Locked inside a cave with no portal out. The distant smell of food floating through the air ceased these thoughts immediately. No bahro could ever make something smell THAT good. No, it smelled like something the Explorer would make- Where was he anyways?

Tomoki struggled to sit upright, how long had he been dreaming? Normally, the nightmares came only once a year. But he had just had a similar dream two weeks ago. That meant he had been asleep for a year? That wasn't right. No, something had thrown his internal clock off. Yeah, that was it.

Tomoki shrugged the thought off and panned his head around the room. There was a door, a wooden gate, slightly primitive looking, compared to the D'ni architecture. There was a small table, next to him, And- there!- on the other side of the room, laying on a cot like the one he himself was sitting on, was the explorer. Unconscious, still, and looking like he was having a nightmare of his own.

Tomoki sighs in relief; nightmares meant that one was nearing consciousness. Nightmares were a sign that you were nearly done healing from shock- If that was even possible.

Tomoki collapses back onto the pillow that his head had been resting on. What was going on? The last thing he could remember was the Demon that had attacked them had thrown them into a tree. _'That. Hurt.'_ he grumbles to himself. _'I've got to figure out where I am...'_ He thought. The first thing was where they were.

Tomoki closes his eyes and reaches out mentally to a telepathic network between all living things, linked to what the D'ni called "The Great Tree of Possibilities." To a his surprise, Tomoki was blocked access from this network with a strange reply of "You have no protector."

The network was managed by things called "Guardians" who, as one might expect, protected a traveler's waking mind from being crushed by an overwhelming flow of incoming data. He _**HAD**_ a guardian, anyone who connected to this network did, or else they couldn't use it. As a being who could link at will, he needed this network in order to control where he would go. Without it, he would have to rely on the books to go to the Ages.

This was disturbing, HOW could he be blocked access? Even inside the link proof chambers, one could still connect to the network. The only possible explanation that came to mind was that he was somehow existing _**before**_ he was naturally born, and hence, having no guide to allow him to access the established linking paths. And the only way _**THIS**_ would be possible is if...!

Tomoki's eyes widen. _'No. It can't be. It just can't!'_ But it was. The bahro that had attacked them, the one with the strange armor, she had sent them Back in time. _'Mom, what did I do to deserve this?'_ He asked to a creature who, like him, wasn't even born yet.  
**  
MEANWHILE: PRESENT DAY_ _ _| ? BAHRO CAVE # 59_ _ _|**

The leader of the Twisted Fraction of the bahro, the very one with the piece of skin removed from his shoulder, grimaces as a warrior storms into the room.

"That was _**MY**_ Kill." The Female growls. "He was MY_**KILL!"**_ She lowered her tone. "And now you tell me he's still _alive?"_

The Leader winces. The one being in the entire universe who could dispose him in an instant, his very own daughter, was three steps away from tearing his head off in a similar fashion to how that D'ni man had removed his skin. "I'm...Sorry?" he offers sheepishly.

"'Sorry'?" The female warrior clenches her fists, occurring simultaneously with the cave starting to shake violently. "'Sorry' does not even _**BEGIN**_ to cover this!" Okay, two steps now. He had better be careful.

"How was I supposed to know your boyfriend was the one who would be the 'time rewriter' of legend?" The Leader immediately regretted saying that, as the warrior before him threw a solid sphere of fire at his head, barely missing by a centimeter. One step.

"He. Is not. My _**BOYFRIEND!**_" She takes a quick stride up to the throne where the other bahro was sitting. "Listen well, Father. If I can't kill him, I will destroy every single living creature in the _**multi-verse**_ until I have that traitor IN** MY**_** CLAWS.**_ And that includes _**YOU.**_"

The girl was staring into her father's eyes, and he saw fire. Burning, destroying, enraged fire. How she became this...this..._**Twisted Demon**_ before him, he did not know, and so, he carefully considered his reply.

_"It seems to me that he is, though."_ Is what he wanted to say, but that would end his war against The Grower's little group without their side ever making a move. So, he went with a half-truth. "You used a temporal shift link." He says, finally. "Rosenberg's method should return him here. But it will-"

The fire in her eyes diminished, ever so slightly. "Thank you, father." She cut him off, then stormed out of the cave with a deranged look on her face.

The leader sighed as he slumped into his throne. He would live, until she realized that he had said "Rosenberg" instead of "Rosenstein..."

...Or was it the other way around? By the Grower, This was going to be messy.

**A RESIDENTAIL DISTRICT SOMEWHERE IN THE CONTINENTAL UNITED STATE_ _ _| SURFACE YEAR 1995_ _ _| **

The two children hugged. "I'll miss you." The boy said.

"I'll miss you too, Dai-kun." The girl replied, then pulled out of the hug. "Take care of yourself."

"I will." He smiled to her. "But you should too."

"Yeah!" She nodded, then turned towards the van with her awaiting family. "_Ja ne_, Dai-kun."

The boy watched sadly as the best friend he ever had from all of his six years walks towards the one thing taking them apart. As she climbed into the vehicle, his vocal cords finally start working again. "_Sayonara, Ka-!"_

The girl looks towards him and smiles broadly, cutting him off with one last phrase. _"Don't be so formal."_

With a nod, the boy reprimands himself. _"Ja Mata Ne, Ka-Chan!"_

**A HOSPITAL SOMEWHERE IN THE ROCKY MOUNTAINS_ _ _| SURFACE YEAR 2004_ _ _|**

The boy, now several years older, clenches his fists as tears stream down his eyes. "Is...is she...? Are they...?"

The doctor, towering above him, sighs. "The damage to the front end of the vehicle made getting to them a risky venture. Your Sister will recover, but, I'm afraid..."

The boy's eyes widen_. "No...They can't be...! They...They just can't...!"_ his mind races.

"...They're gone."

**TAY_ _ _| SURFACE YEAR 1825_ _ _|  
**  
There were four most memories on the Linking book. Nothing even related to said book, well, except maybe the last one. Why? Yeesha didn't know, and she didn't care.

Why?

Yeesha was running down the hallways, not because she was trying to avoid figuring this out though, no most definitely not that. She was running because one of the two strangers had woken up.

Thoughts were racing through her mind, who was awake? What exactly was the creature? Why did the boy have a book with her name inscribed on it? If it was the boy, maybe she could ask him about why the book had memories that didn't fit with it on it?

When she came to the room where the boy and the creature were staying, she was slightly disappointed. The creature was the one awake, and it was trying to explain something to the Rivenese medic in strange chirping sounds, kind of like a bird.

The medic turns to Yeesha, exasperated. "I've never heard such sounds from a being in all my years, Dear girl!"

Yeesha smiles. "I don't think anyone has." Her eyes drift to the boy, still unconscious. "Well, except maybe him."

At this comment the creature, now that she could see them, turned it's bright blue eyes towards the boy, and started chirping rapidly, along with several rapid nods.

The medic throws his arms up in disgust, then leaves the room. "You take care of it, dear girl! I give up! Let me know when the boy awakens!"

* * *

Tomoki tries explaining, once more, to the medic. _"He's just fine! Just a concussion! He's not seriously hurt!"_

The medic then turns to a young girl standing in the doorway. "I've never heard such sounds from a being in all my years, Dear girl!"

Tomoki's eyes widen at the girl standing in the doorway. She had the same essence of power as the Grower. This couldn't be...

"I don't think anyone has." Her eyes drift to the explorer, still unconscious. "Well, except maybe him."

Tomoki looks over at him suddenly. _"Yes! Yes he has!"_ he nods rapidly. _"But he's still sleeping so if you'd be kind enough to-!"_

The medic throws his arms up in disgust, then leaves the room. "You take care of it, dear girl! I give up! Let me know when the boy awakens!"

Tomoki looks to the girl- Yeesha- in concern. That explained the similar power signal. _"You're Yeesha? You're _REALLY_ the-!"_

Yeesha clamps her hands over her ears. "I Can't understand you!"

Tomoki stops, then slams his right hand-claw into his forehead. _"DOH! Of course she doesn't understand!"_ This was the Yeesha, The Grower, of the distant past. She hadn't even written the _**RELTO **_age Yet, let alone learn- Tomoki stops that train of thought.

Relto.

The little green book that broke all of the D'ni's linking rules. If Yeesha got one good look at the pages inside of that book...

* * *

Yeesha clamps her hands over her ears. "I Can't understand you!"

The creature stopped, then slammed its right claw/hand to its forehead. She knew what that meant, all right, even if she couldn't understand what it was saying. Then, it's eyes widen at some thought, panic flooding the once calm blue orbs.

"Hey, hey!" Yeesha starts, trying to get the creature to calm down. "Calm down, everything's going to be all right!"

It shakes it's head "no" as it repeats the same set of chirps over and over.

* * *

_"It's not going to be all right! It's NOT GOING TO BE ALLRIGHT!" _Tomoki exclaims. _"I'm BACK__** IN **__**TIME**__! I shouldn't even __**BE**__ here! Let alone __**TALKING**__ to The Grower of all people!"_

Yeesha holds her hands out. "Hold on! Hold On!" she reaches inside a pocket, then pulls out her memory amulet. THE Memory amulet. The very item the Grower used to translate the Bahro's set of thought patterns into something legible. "I wanna try something real quick..."

Tomoki's eyes widen. Of Course! He immediately reaches his hands towards the amulet, and screams, as loud as he can: _"We're not Supposed to be _**HERE**_!"_

* * *

The creature immediately lunged for the amulet, screaming, loudly. Yeesha's survival instinct told her to dodge, but it was too fast to do so; and as soon as it _touched_ the amulet, there was a flash, and the scream was instantly translated, mid sentence.

_"-Supposed to be _**HERE**_!"_

Yeesha blinks. "Uh...Could you repeat that?"

The creature blinked. _"You can understand me now?"_ Excitement was laced in it's- or rather, His, now that she could understand it- voice.

"...Yes?" Yeesha replies slowly.

The creature sighs in relief. _"I wasn't sure that wasn't going to work. He'd kill me for not thinking things through like that."_

"Who would?" Yeesha asks.

_"Him."_ He gestures his head towards the explorer.

"Right..." Yeesha nods. "So what were you trying to say just now?"

Tomoki paled. _"uh... Well..." _

* * *

Oh, Quab in a hat. What was he going to say now? Now that he knew that he could be understood, he wasn't sure if he should try to explain what had exactly happened.

"Something about being here?" Yeesha continues.

_"Yeah...Well..."_

At that moment, A Rivenese guard and the medic re-enter the room.

"What's going on? Did it attack?" The guard asks.

Yeesha holds up her hands, pulling the amulet away from him. "No no~! Everything's just fine!"

"But that sound...!" The medic starts.

"He was just trying to get a message across!" Yeesha holds up the amulet. "As soon as he saw this, he knew it would translate what he was saying!"

"If you say so..." The guard, still slightly wary, turns and leaves the room.

"If you don't mind..." The medic takes the amulet from Yeesha, then turns to Tomoki. "Are you all right?" he asks slowly.

Tomoki reaches out and touches the amulet again before talking. _"I'm just fine."_

The medic frowns in astonishment. "It speaks perfect Rivenese!"

Yeesha blinks in return. "Really? That sounded like English to me."

Tomoki frowns. Strange, he thought, then retracts his claw from the amulet. _"Testing, one two three..."_

Yeesha smiles. "I hear you just fine."

Tomoki's eyes widen. That shouldn't have happened.

**EDDIE COUNTY, NEW MEXICO_ _ _| SURFACE YEAR 2006_ _ _| JUNE_ _ _|**

The boy grimaces as he tightens a bolt on the device before him. "Perfect...!"

Just then, a man bursts into the room. "KID! What did I say about touching MY Things?"

The boy stands to attention. "NOT TO, SIR." Then, with a vague smirk, he adds. "But this is all mine, Sir. Brought with my own money."

The man simmers for a moment, then reaches for a large cylinder, filled with a glowing green substance. "Then **WHAT IS **_**THIS?"**_

**"NO! **_**DON'T-!" **_The boy is too late, the room fills with a blinding flash of green as the cylinder is ripped from it's casing.

**HOUSTON, TEXAS_ _ _| DECEMBER 19th_ _ _|**

The boy climbs down off of the bus, and looks warily around.

The Police were nowhere around, thankfully. They seemed to have given up the chase.

Then, a woman spotted him. Him and his cursed red hat. "THERE! THERE'S THE MURDURER!"

The Boy muttered a curse, then ran, Or tried to at least, as several random men ran towards him. His feet seemed rooted to the ground, and the world slowly blurring out from around him. Then, an ear piercing, glass shattering scream ruptures through the air.

**RELTO ISLAND_ _ _|**

The boy blinked as the world lurched suddenly, from arid county bus stop to mysterious island in the clouds.

He collapsed to the ground, relishing in the different air. The boy runs his fingers through the damp soil.

He was safe. He was secure. He didn't have to run. He was...

**TAY_ _ _| SURFACE YEAR 1825_ _ _|**

"...Home..."

The sudden intrusion into the room made Tomoki and Yeesha jump. There was no one else in the room except for the unconscious explorer, who wasn't so unconscious any more.

"Hey, he's waking up!" Yeesha takes a quick few steps across the room to check on the explorer's condition. "But what's he...?"

Before Yeesha can finish her sentence, the explorer groans, then slowly opens his eyes. "Could ya keep it down? I just got tossed into a tree for cryin' out loud."

Tomoki leans into the explorer's line of sight and smiles in relief. _"Hey there, welcome back to the land of the living, mister time traveler."_

The explorer frowns at the name, clearly noticing something amiss. "Since when could you talk?"

"Since he met me!" Yeesha steps into view, a broad grin on her face. "Hi, I'm Yeesha!"

The frown on the explorer's face deepens as his eyes widen. "'Yeesha'?"

Tomoki nods, as his words echo in the explorer's head, _"mister time traveler."_

"Well..." The explorer groans. "...Quab in a hat..."

**AHNONAY EXTERIOR_ _ _| SURFACE YEAR 2007, OCTOBER_ _ _|**

The explorer frowns at the giant metal spheres. "You know, I really hate Kadish."

The bahro next to him chirps an inquiry. _"Why?"_

"He was just so...Full of himself." The explorer huffs, swinging his right arm wide. "He hides his personal password to this place, in plain sight; fakery calls himself the grower, with the clues saying he wasn't right in plain sight; gives the solutions to all of his security age's puzzles, in plain sight; and died because he didn't use a linking book, right in plain sight."

Tomoki frowns. _"So?"_

"He claimed this age is Garternay as it was, is, and would be." The explorer frowns at the spheres. "A genius who went mad. Mister time traveler extraordinaire."

Tomoki nodded in understanding. Time travel was not something to be taken lightly.

There was a pause, and then the explorer laughed. "Hey, Tomoki? If I ever meet a living Kadish, remind me to run him through with something fancy from his vault, could ya?"

**END CHAPTER ONE.**

A.N.: First chapter of this story. I hope it's all right, formatting and all. Anywho, Whenever Tomoki talks, it's supposed to be in _itallics_, but it it doesn't show up right, well, blame the formatter.

So, Yeah. It's a confusing first chapter, but then again, that's time travel for ya, you don't really know how it's going to turn out. There's a certain fell I want for this story, part of it is to be a looked back upon tale, and being re-told, kinda like Kyon's narration from the Haruhi Suzumiya series. But the rest of it? I don't know exactly. It's still going off in an unknown direction in parts. I know where it'll end up, but not the how.

Ah, anywho. Off to put this up on the main site as well.

~DTC 


	3. Ch2 Missing In Action

**CHAPTER TWO.**

**RESIDENTIAL DISTRICT_ _ _| SURFACE YEAR 2003_ _ _|**

The boy and his twin sister were sitting on their mother's lap as she showed them an old photo album.

"Who's that?" the girl with blond hair and blue eyes points to a slightly faded photo.

"That was your great, great grandfather, serving during the war." The woman smiles as she explains the picture her daughter had just chosen.

The boy notes an older looking picture in the album, next to the one his sister had just chosen, and points to it. "Who are they?"

The twins mother smiles sadly at the boy smiling to the camera. "That was your...let's see now...great, great, great... Great... great, great, great uncle. The twin brother of your Great, great..." She sighs and skips the remaining greats. "...Great grandmother. "His name was Callam."

"But what about the other guy?" The girl asks, referencing the slightly older teenager, obscuring his face from the camera with his wide rimed hat, tipped in a salute.

"Your Great Grandmother never knew his real name." Their mother sighs. "A Shame really. When she and her brother were growing up- maybe ten or so?- their settlement was raided by wild animals." She laughs lightly. "Mister tall dark and mysterious jumped into the middle of the stampede, with this strange, glowing sword." The woman closes her eyes as she recalls the story told to her by her own mother. _"'Be gone, Demons of The Night!'_ he called, swinging his sword, and sending the animals running away as bolt after bolt of lightning chased them out of town from his blade." She glances down at her children. "He saved our great grandmother from certain death."

The two twins had awe and amazement in their eyes.

"When I grow up." Her son starts. "I want to learn how to do that! Just so I can protect people too!"

**TAY_ _ _| SURFACE YEAR 1825_ _ _|**

The explorer sighs as he looks at the picture in his hand, torn and faded just as it was when he took it out of the photo album.

"Well, I guess there's no denying it." he sighs, then puts the picture back inside the pocket it came from before turning to leave the room. The boy, who would have been turning seventeen in two weeks but was now resigned to keep his current age due to the confusion of time travel, stops at the doorway to pick up his backpack, a gift kindly given to him by the Rivenese people.

**FLASH BACK: A FEW DAYS EARLIAR_ _ _|**

"I'm not going to use my real name" The explorer starts as he adjusts the wide brimmed hat he had been given before exiting the room. "When I intro myself, I'm not going to use my real name. So don't act surprised."

Tomoki looks up. _"How come?"_

"Fresh start and all that." The explorer pauses briefly. "I'm thinking of going with Daisuke."

_"Nice name." _ the bahro then inquires. _"Isn't that from an anime?"_

The explorer stops in his tracks. "N-No! Whatever would give you that idea?"

Tomoki laughed. Long and loud.

**END FLASHBACK_ _ _|**

The explorer walks down the stone like hallways in main structure of the Age called Tay in amusement. "If this is all a dream, it's the dream of everyone, I'll bet."

As he walks, he notes the inhabitants giving him strange looks. _'Well, it's not everyday they see a time traveler, I suppose.'_

He wanted to Relto away, not go through the trouble of saying goodbyes and such. But Tomoki couldn't link at will anymore for some odd reason. So they had to go through the whole "Share Book" routine.

Where was the bahro anyways? The explorer wondered. _'Probably getting more oranges for the road, I'll bet.'_

**FLASH BACK_ _ _|  
**  
The Explorer enters a room with a single table in it. One man sits at the table, writing in a journal; Atrus.

The explorer coughs, to let himself known to the room.

"Oh! Hello." The man smiles as he looks up from his writing.

"You wanted to see me, sir?" The explorer asks.

"Yes, yes, Come in. Come in." Atrus beckons the explorer further into the room. The Explorer takes a seat across from the man, letting him start. "As I understand it, you want your personal linking book back?"

"Yes, sir. Yes I do." The explorer nods. "It's something rather important to me and Tomoki."

"I've taken a look at it." Atrus then pulls the small green book out of a pile of other books. "But I can't tell if it's stable or not because I can't seem to open it past the main panel."

The explorer sighs. "Considering where I'm from, that doesn't surprise me."

"Where are you from, exactly?" Atrus asks as he turns the book over in his hands. "It has Yeesha's name on it, and I'm curious as to why."

The explorer sighs. "That's a long story, Sir. A really long story."

"I've got time."

"Time." The explorer huffs. "I've always been running out of it." He glances to the Relto book. "Now I've got more than I need." Then he looks Atrus in the eye. "I was going to die."

Atrus's only inquiry was a low "hmm?"

**END FLASHBACK_ _ _|**

As he entered a common room, he spots Yeesha talking to a girl who looked a few years older than her. More around his age.

Politely coughing, The explorer lets himself known to the room. "Have either of you seen Tomoki?"

Yeesha turns around to face him, a grin on her face. "There you are! I was just talking about you!"

The explorer sighs. _'I can only imagine.'_

Yeesha grabs her friend's arm. "Come on Kaiyumi! Let's go say Hi!"

"Yeesha!" The girl yelps as she's dragged from her chair. "Wait just one second!"

"Dysk, this is Kaiyumi! Kaiyumi, This is Dysk!" Yeesha grins.

The explorer sighs. That was the trouble of creating a fake alias.

Kaiyumi, as the girl was identified, looks him in the eye, and he looks her right back.

A moment of silence occurs between the two.

Yeesha frowns.

"Well, anyways. Have you two seen Tomoki?" the Explorer inquires again.

Kaiyumi shakes her head. "Sorry, No, I haven't even met the little guy yet."

The explorer sighs. "Well, it was worth a try." He turns to leave. "_Ja Mata Ne._ See ya around."

He barely got three inches out of the door when Yeesha started chasing after him, Dragging her friend by the arm.

"WAIT!"

The explorer turns to face the girl. "Yes?"

"We can help you look!" Yeesha smiles. Kaiyumi looks to The explorer, shaking her head "no."

He sighs. "As much as I appreciate it, I don't want to mess up your time line as much as I already have."

Yeesha rolls her eyes with a grin. "But what if you messing it up_** is **_part of my time line?"

The explorer kneels down, and looks the future Grower in the eye. "If it is, I've already done my part." He stood up, and continued back down the hallway. "I'm leaving."

"Pleaseeeee!" Yeesha then abandons dragging her friend down the hallway for wrapping her arms around his legs. "Please, Dysk? Please stay?"

The explorer blinks rapidly. "I...But I... I can't!"

"Why not?" The girl asks, attempting to give a set of Puppy dog eyes.

"I Just Can't!" He was tempted to relto right then and there, with or without Tomoki. In fact, his hand was reaching down for the book at that moment.

Yeesha noticed this, and was about to act towards snatching the book away from him when Kaiyumi put a hand on her shoulder.

"Yeesha, let him go." Kaiyumi sighs. "He's made up his mind on this."

Yeesha frowns. "But he and Tomoki HAVE to stay!"

**PRESENT DAY_ _ _| GAHREESEN_ _ _|**

The rip in space time was clear. The world literally was _**shattered**_ in that spot.

Adale, the daughter of the leader of the Nekisahl, smirked. "Soon, my prey, soon we shall be reunited. And soon you shall be dead."

The female warrior turns to her gathered army. "I will return momentarily." Then she connects to the network in order to open the portal once more.

Her Guardian spirit greets her immediately. _"Welcome Adale, what a pleasant surprise! I haven't seen you in a year!"_

Adale frowns. "Save the greetings for later. I need to travel after that traitor."

_"You Wish to go back in time? To alter events more than they have already?"_ Her guardian asks, surprised. _"With things in flux already as they are, This is surprising from you!"_

"Yes." Adale answers immediately. "A thousand times yes!"

_"I will grant you the power, but only under my supervision."_ The Guardian notes.

Adale grimaces, knowing how these spirits love to keep the universe in check. A being as powerful as herself shouldn't need "supervision." But, in this case, Adale knows nothing of forging portals. "I agree to the terms of service."

_"Good. Before we begin, I would like to mention this one thing: When you travel back in time, you will not be able to access the network as you currently do."_ her Guardian notes. _"Your powers surpass those of normal beings, As you do not even need to connect to do things others must. When you travel back, you will be at _slightly _normal power levels."_

Adale raises an eyebrow. "In that case the traitor can't link at will. He's a sitting duck!"

_"Such Human terms from a supposed Human hater! I'm impressed!"_ Her guardian laughs.

"Oh, Save it for the Pigs." Adale growls. "Tell me how to re-open the portal."

Her Guardian spirit's laughter dies out. _"All right. Hold out your right hand, towards the rupture."_

Adale does so.

_"Then intone the Rhymes of the Ancient Time Lords."_ Her guardian informs. _"Verses Ten through Twenty-Eight."_

"Ten to Twenty-Eight?" Adale grimaces. "You know, I'm starting to think you're just toying with me."

_"I might be, I might not."_ The guardian chuckles. _ "Following this procedure, create a temporal Link shift on a time locked cycle."_

Adale sighs. "A lot of stuff to do here."

_"Yes, well, Even __**Gods **__have to follow the rules sometimes."_ Her guardian notes with a chuckle. _"But this step is IMPERATIVE, or else you will not be able to return."_ a pause. _"And You DO Want to return, right?"_

Adale mimics "you do want to return, right?" in a low, barely hearable tone.

_"What was that?"_

"I said, 'yes, I do want to return, all right?'" Adale replies sharply.

_"I thought so..."_

"Look, can we hurry this up?" Adale frowns.

_"Why hurry? Time in this world is nearly nonexistent, compared to your universe."_ Her guardian notes.

"I'm impatient. Didn't you know that?" Adale asks sarcastically

_"No, No I did not."_ Her guardian laughs.

* * *

To the gathered forces of the Nekisahl, Adale had closed her eyes only a second ago.

To Adale, She had been reciting enchantments, spells, and biblical verses for a little over two hours.

_"Okay, You are done."_ her Guardian's form smiles.

Adale grimaces. "About time."

_"Now, before I return you to your world, I want you to understand one thing."_ The Guardian starts. _"And it is a VERY important thing that you should not dismiss under _ANY_ Circumstance."_

"All right, what is it?" Adale sighs, tired of her guardian's continuous talking.

_"Be warned, Adale, If you do not succeed in your self imposed mission, you WILL be banished."_ Her guide intones. _"The banishment of all banishments."_ a pause. _"And you know what that is."_

Adale gulps. "Y-You're serious?"

_"Time Travel is bound by thousands upon hundreds of laws."_ The guardian reminds. _"One Such Law is that 'If you are using your own power to promote your own ends, and you _**Fail**_, you will bear the punishment to it's fullest.' Keep that in Mind, Adale."_

"I will." The female warrior bows her head. "I thank you for your guidance, My guardian."

_"I will miss you, Adale."_ her guide smiles warmly. _"For, even if you succeed in your plan, the world you will return to will not be this one. Such are the risks of time travel."_

Adale has nothing to say to this.

**AGE OF EDER GIRA_ _ _| THE JUNGLE SWAMPS_ _ _| 1825_ _ _|**

Two forms swiftly move through the foliage away from their village, laughing all the way.

One is a female, the other male, both are in their teenage years.

"Come on Jal! We're going to be late!" The Girl, who was dragging the boy through the maze of trees, grins. "Do you want Thalnar to call you a 'lazy rhuk' again?"

The boy rolls his eyes. "Kalhm, you're the one who said the party was half an hour later than it was!"

"Yeah well..." The girl trails off as they exit the maze, entering the clearing (with a rather nice koi pond taking up half of the space) where the party had been held.

The clearing was deserted, save for the seemingly abandoned party equipment. Not a fellow teenaged child of the local village was present.

"What..." The boy starts. "What happened here?"

The girl had no verbal answer, for she was gone.

"Kalhm?" The boy looks around, frantic. How had she vanished when she was holding his hand, standing right next to him? "Kalhm, this isn't funny! Come on, where are you?"

A shadow moved behind the boy...

"Kalhm?"

...And then he was gone as well.

**AGE OF TAY_ _ _|**

Yeesha watched with a grin as Daisuke, as that was the name the explorer had introduced himself as, walked back towards her and Kaiyumi not ten minutes later, Tomoki shuffling his feet behind the explorer.

Well, technically, he was walking towards the book room where Yeesha and Kaiyumi (rather reluctantly, though) were waiting for him.

"You didn't think you were going to leave without a proper good bye, right?" Yeesha asks.

"We said goodbye earlier, didn't we?" The explorer asks.

"That wasn't a proper good bye!" Yeesha points out. "And besides, Kaiyumi still hasn't met Tomoki!" Kaiyumi went to say something to the contrary but stopped when Yeesha continued. "You two are staying here and I'm not going to let you leave!" You had to hand it to the girl, she was persistent.

"Look, I've already told you that I'm not..." The explorer cut himself off with a sigh. "We're not staying."

Tomoki looked up to his friend. _"What if I wanted to stay?"_

Daisuke sighs, again. He seems to like doing that allot, doesn't he? "Then you can stay. I'm not."

Tomoki's saddened mood immediately brightens. _"Really? I can!"_

"Sure, I don't see why not." Daisuke starts. "As far as I'm concerned, you can do whatever you want." He shrugs. "I just went to the trouble to hunt you down and take you along just because I thought you wanted to come along."

Tomoki frowns for a moment. _"Well, if I could go back and forth..."_

At this, Yeesha has no hesitation in rushing over, grabbing Tomoki by his left arm, and dragging him down the hall. "Come on! Let's go tell Mom and Dad you're staying with us! Maybe they'll let you stay in my room!" Tomoki's eyes widen at this.

_"No! Wait! I changed my mind!"_ He cries out, throwing his right arm out in a frantic gesture, trying to tell Daisuke grab it. _"I want to leave! I want to leave!"_

Yeesha, however, just hums a merry tune. "Na la la, Na la la..."

_"HELP! ME!"_ Tomoki cries out as he's dragged around a corner.

Daisuke and Kaiyumi look down the now empty hallway for a few moments before looking at each other and asking simultaneously "What just happened here?"

An awkward silence fills the room.

"So, ah..." The boy enters the book room, and turns towards the requested linking book. "I'm just going to go then."

"Right, right." The girl nods, and turns to leave, but stops short. "Ah, Yeesha can be a bit crazy some times, so, I'll keep an eye on your friend, okay?"

"Thanks." He smiles. "I'd appreciate it."

With that, he opens the book, presses his hand to the page, and links away.

Kaiyumi always found linking a strange thing. Your body would vanish into thin air here, and reappear elsewhere. She always hesitated upon touching those strange pictures- portals to another world- and yet this new comer used them regularly.

For a brief moment, Kaiyumi considered following him through the green bound book, for no apparent reason at all.

Well, she _**was**_ free from all major duties for the next- Kaiyumi crushed the thought immediately.

**EDER KEMO_ _ _| EXPLORER'S/DAISUKE'S POV_ _ _|**

When I linked into the Garden age of Eder Kemo, I was expecting something less like what I already knew it by.

When I linked into the Garden age of Eder Kemo, I wasn't expecting it to be exactly the same way I already knew it by.

The bahro glyphs painted on the walls were exactly the same, only newer, Fresher.

After all, D'ni had only fallen- what? Thirty? Forty years ago?

But the main thing that caught my attention was the fact that the Bahro door was still here, even if the cloths to open it were missing.

I was curious as to what would happen if I tried to open the door.

I didn't take the risk though. The bahro door wasn't my goal here.

The Nexus book in Gira was.

I Did notice that one Minor change to the age was that the statue wasn't spinning. I didn't want to stick around to see if that was what was causing the rain, however.

And so, I went to the Gira linking book, barely noting that it went to the main area and not the back. Well, That would make it easier on me. With that, I pressed my hand to the window.

**AGE OF EDER GIRA_ _ _| STEAM VENT AREA_ _ _|**

Linking is a strange thing. In the games, the world would fade to black. I think the reason for this is because of the fact that people instinctively close their eyes when they link. To the outside person, it appears as if you're vanishing into thin air. But, if you keep your eyes open, it's truly remarkable. The Linking panels are literally windows to another world. Literally, they are doors. You pass through them.

When I link through a normal book, I keep my eyes open. The world begins to distort, and the Linking book seems to grow, or, do I begin to shrink? Regardless, the Linking panel literally becomes a door, and I pass through. The world beyond comes closer with a single step, and there I am. It's definitely disorientating as my line of sight seems to twist and turn until I reach my own eyes again, Which is probably why we instinctively close our eyes.

"Artistic License" be banned! The real reason flybys exist in the Myst games was because the Stranger never closed his eyes! That's my theory!

But wait, you ask, why do I specify "Normal Linking books"? Because, I once tried linking through an abnormal link (it was Negilahn's portal, if you must know) and I wound up on my head in relto because I blindly stumbled off the ledge! That's why!

**NORMAL POV_ _ _|**

Daisuke linked into the pit during night time hours.

"Why is it I always land on the night side?" He asks himself as he walks around towards the nexus book stand, only to stop as he spots said stand knocked onto it's side. "Well well...What have we here?" The explorer gets down onto his knees to inspect the stand. It seemed to have been knocked down a few years earlier, as indicated by the amount of dirt burying it. An animal, perhaps? But then where was the linking book to the nexus?

Getting to his feet, Daisuke 'hmm's and looks out towards the waterfall area and beyond. "Maybe the natives are still around then..." So, he went through the motions of closing the pressure vents to launch himself over the rubble blocking the path to the back area.

He wondered about what the villagers looked like. Were they humanoid? Were they like the Bahro? How did they get to and from the village from and to the Steam vent area? Did they have wings? How advanced were they technologically? What would they think of him? And did they have his Nexus book?

When the explorer catapulted himself over the rubble, he wasn't expecting ANYONE or ANYTHING to be waiting for him on the other side. Let alone anyone with dart gun-crossbow and Dart gun-rifle hybrids.

Daisuke barely registered the fact that there were angry tribal warriors in the age _**shooting**_ at him before he collapsed to the ground.

**JUNGLE/SWAMP AREA_ _ _| SOME TIME LATER_ _ _|**

Daisuke barely registered the fact that he was conscious before a bag was removed rather violently from his head.

The first thing he noticed was that it was day time. The second was that he was in side one of the structures seen at afar from the water fall area. The third was that he was before the village elders. And the fourth was that they were all cat-girls. Not in the literal sense that they were really feline-human hybrids, nor that they were all female, but that they all were wearing cat ears and had cat tails and had (what he assumed were) Cat fur clothes, and they had Cat styled Masks. Daisuke assumed they within their late twenties.

After he had realized all of this, he then realized that they were talking to him.

In Japanese.

He was sure there was some sort of temporal miss-hap going on here, or else they wouldn't be speaking his second learned language. So Daisuke's reaction to this deduction was a simple phrase, Repeated thrice.

_"You are the first outsider to arrive in thirty years!" _

"What?"

_"Who are you!"_

"What!"

_"Are you an idiot or something? Answer them!"_

"WHAT!"

**END CHAPTER TWO.  
**


	4. Ch3 Press RB to Flip Wait What?

**CHAPTER THREE.**

**THE AGE OF TAY_ _ _|**

Yeesha merrily hummed a tune as she pulled Tomoki down the hallway back to the book room, having obtained permission from her mother to let the bahro stay with them.

However, this tune (and her rather chipper pace down the hall) came to a halt as she watched a form wearing the "Rebel" Clothes from the Days on Riven- before she was born- link through the Green book that had been requested by Daisuke, the explorer.

Yeesha immediately lets go of Tomoki's arm, in favor of running down the hallway in search of Cathrine. "MOM! MOM!"

Tomoki sighs before dusting himself off and climbing to his feet. _"Well. That was strange."_

**SOME TIME LATER_ _ _| EDER GIRA_ _ _| JUNGLE SWAMPS_ _ _|**

The village elders looked up from their duties as a patroller enters the room, dragging a human with a bag over his head behind her.

An Elder stands up, anger resonating in his voice. "What is the meaning of this?"

"My Lord Seekers of Knowledge." The patroller bows respectfully. "We found this one altering the pressure valves to access the fishing area."

Another elder rises to her feet. "The fishing area? Hasn't that been abandoned by the visitors for thirty years already?"

"What is their sudden interest in our lands?" a third elder inquires, deciding to remain in his seat. "Surely there must be a reason!"

A fourth elder nods her head. "revive him. We shall inquire of his intents."

The patroller nods her head and takes a specially marked dart out of a pocket before jabbing it into the explorer's arm.

He groans as the anti-toxin works its way through his system.

The first elder signals for the Patroller to remove the bag over his head.

"Welcome to our village." The third elder starts out. "I apologize for your..."

Village Elder Number Two cuts her off. "You are the first Outsider to arrive in Thirty years!"

The first intelligent thing the explorer says is _"What?"_

"Who are you!" Elder Number One inquires.

_"What!"_

"Are you an Idiot or something?" The Fourth elder suddenly interjects into the conversation. "Answer them!"

_"WHAT!"_

The patroller can't help but to laugh as she thinks to her self, "Wow, does he have a limited vocabulary or _**what**_?"

**AGE OF TAY_ _ _|**

One "Rebel" Costume, female, sized for a girl of sixteen; one week's worth of bread and assorted food stuffs; one week's supply of Ytram dart poison, Forty-Two of said darts, plus one dart launcher, crossbow style; and finally, one linking book back to Tay.

These were the items that were stolen by the girl who had linked through the book to Eder Kemo.

It didn't take an age writer to figure out who had linked after Daisuke, Yeesha thought. After all, it was Kaiyumi's dart launcher that was missing, Kaiyumi was the last one to have access to the Book room, and once you add in the costume, Yeesha already knew who had stolen everything.

But it seemed no-one around Yeesha could put two and two together as to who the thief was. Maybe it was the fact that Kaiyumi was always a tad..._adventurous_ in the things she did that caused people not to think about her.

...Or perhaps it was the fact that Yeesha had neglected to mention that it was Kaiyumi's launcher that was missing.

Yeah, that probably didn't help things at all.

**EDER GIRA_ _ _|**

Kaiyumi sighed as she pulled off the mask that was part of the rebel outfit. It was so humid in this jungle (how did the Moitay Rebels ever manage to get around in such dark clothing?)!

Regardless, it was her own fault for running off in the heat of the moment (hah. Bad joke), but for once, her instincts paid off. She had been not a few minutes behind the Explorer when she saw him being carted off by the natives of the age. Since it had been night time, she had been able to follow them easily. But now that it was day time...

Kaiyumi grimaced as she heard one of the natives dragging the explorer out of the main hut, talking to him in hushed tones in some language she had never head, but Daisuke clearly had, as he was replying to the native in an apparent attempt to earn sympathy.

When the Warrior jabbed one of the poison darts into his neck to silence him, Kaiyumi knew it wasn't working. She had no clue what was going on here, the natives seemed frightened of something, but were confident that the boy was the source of their problems for some reason, and were glad to see him go.

Kaiyumi had been following the group for about five minutes before they arrived at a pool of some sort, leaving the explorer tied up to a tree, before waking him up and leaving the area as quickly as possible. She waited to make sure the natives were nowhere near the explorer before climbing down out of the trees and walking over to him.

"Daisuke!" she whispers in a raised tone.

He looked up suddenly. "Well. Now I didn't see this coming." The explorer frowns at the girl and notes dryly. "I wasn't expecting you to be here."

"Yeah, well..." Kaiyumi began searching for the knot on the rope that was binding him to the tree. "I just had a gut feeling that I should've been following you, and look where you've ended up!"

"I seem to get into these situations allot." he sighed, then turned his head towards the Rivenese girl. "What are you doing anyways?"

"Trying to get you out of here and back to Tay!" She continues her search. "I can't find the knot on this rope though!"

"Well, As much as I appreciate the effort." Daisuke notes. "Would you please stop?"

"Why?" She glared at him. "We've got to get out of here!"

"Look, there's something in this jungle." He starts. "it's been taking all their children with mysterious intent."

"Mister what?" She blinks.

"Ugh. Right. Surface term." Daisuke mutters to himself. "Look, I'm curious as to what this thing is, and I'm..."

"...And you're bait?" Kaiyumi finishes. "Yeah, sure. Just go ahead and feed yourself to the Whark why don't cha?"

Daisuke narrowed his eyes. "Okay, that's the second time today that the language barrier has glitched up on me."

"What in the world are you...?" Kaiyumi trails off as a rather strange sound fills the air. "What's that?"

It sounded like several million bug wings flapping at once. Or better yet...

"Like a broken TV set..." Daisuke muses.

"A broken what?" Kaiyumi asks.

"Again, Surface thing." He makes a 'shush' sound and glances around for the source of the Static like noise.

Then, he saw it.

And that "it" WAS static. Literally, an entire face of some strange, exotic animal made up of nothing but STATIC.

_"And whatever captures the image of an angel..."_ He thought to himself sourly, then jumped inwardly at his own thoughts._ Where'd that come from?_

"Okay...Kaiyumi?" He looks over at her, warily keeping an eye on the static image. "I want you to cut me loose now." There was a cautious tone in his voice now. One that said "Don't panic. But things are about to go south."

"First you say not to cut you loose, then you want me TO cut you loose...would you make up your mind already!" She angrily pulled a knife out of a pocket and cut the ropes at a random spot; there was a second, more concerned undertone that asked "What's wrong?" in her voice.

Daisuke turned his head back to the static thing. Indeed, it was still there, except for the fact that he could see bones underneath the static skin as it now moved slowly towards them. "Say...Did you happen to notice if there were any bones in the back area? By the waterfalls?"

"No, There weren't any, why?" Kaiyumi replies, now looking where he was, and too seeing the now-walking skeleton that was coated in static.

Then, the static-beast opened it's jaws, and roared. _**"ROOOOAAAAARRRR!"**_

"Okay. That's a new one." Daisuke noted as a seemingly nonexistent wind rushed past them from the monster's mouth. "I mean, wow! That was SO _Night At-!_"

"I say we _**Run!"**_Kaiyumi ordered before grabbing him by the arm and dragging him away from the Static-ized Dinosaur.

It let loose another static overlaid Roar before giving chase.

"I don't think this thing took their kids!" Daisuke rationalized as they ran. "from what the elders described, the kids were taken suddenly, almost as if they never existed!"

"SO?" Kaiyumi asks before jumping up onto a rock and over into a tree.

"So!" Daisuke continued as he follows her up into the tree. "That means that if this thing were the thing that took their kids, we would've been with them before we even saw it!"

The Static beast roars as it rushes past them, not even noticing that it's prey had gone above it.

"Okay, I get that!" Kaiyumi nods as she tries to catch her breath. "But then what is that thing!"

Daisuke looked at the beast as it storms around the jungle, searching for it's lost prey. "Well..."

It seemed to be alive, but at the same time, it seemed dead. Then there was the static. Almost as if two conflicting images were trying to fight for prevalence. Two Broken signals. Something almost like a corrupted Slow Scan TV signal.

"...It's broken." He replied, having no good explanation. "Broken, like an imager."

"Oh! A Broken imager!" She nods. "I get that. But why is it broken?"

"Something... Something that happened that shouldn't have. It's almost like it's split into two signals. One it's alive, one it's dead." He frowned. "Something caused the timeline to diverge. Something... Something..."

Suddenly, the static beast turned it's massive, one horned head at their tree and looked up.

It's eyes. It's eyes were like burning stars. A burning, dieing soul. Tortured, in pain, somehow alive despite it's impossible nature. Static, Stars, Skeleton. The most impossible combination. And yet there it was. Something so... So... Vastly impossible that the only word to describe it WAS 'impossible!'

This analysis took place in a split second, and the beast charged at the tree.

"RUN!" was the word almost on Daisuke's tongue when the beast suddenly just RAN through the tree, not even leaving a mark!

The creature seemed just as confused by this, and repeated the process again, but this time, it's quarry had already left the tree as the beast plowed through it, tearing the poor wooden trunk to pieces. This confused the beast and it's prey even more. It's body structure had no where NEAR enough mass to destroy the tree in such a manner, and then yet another layer to the static image was added.

Now it was shape shifting between different structures: Four legs, two legs and two arms, a living creature, a skeletal mishmash of bones. This creature, whatever it originally was, was now nothing more than a writhing, impossible, completely totally impossible mass of static and internal organs and bones, and skin, and burning stars and- "ENOUGH!"

Daisuke was falling. Not to the ground. NO! He had jumped onto the beast, as crazy and impossible as it was! "WOAH!" He grimaced as the beast- now some sort of strange tiger shaped Tyrannosaurus- began thrashing about like a bucking bronco! _"What in the world is this thing!"_ He thought in amazement. _"Sis' would have a field day with this!"_

Meanwhile, Kaiyumi watched from the trees, having been long forgotten by the beast, now trying to get the explorer off it's back. "What in the...?"

"WAHOO! Ride 'Em Cowboy!" Daisuke cheered to himself as he tried to find some sort of weakness on the monster. _"Let's see...The Skin's translucent enough with all this static that I can see the internal organs... Now if I can just time this right...!" _He suddenly threw his hand into the shifting ribcage of the static monster, and pulled out a Quab of all things! "Wha...?" He blinked at the kicking Quab in his hand. _"Okay. This is just getting silly."_

Not two seconds passed before Kaiyumi joined him on the cowboy impression. "WAAAH!" She cried out in surprise at the sudden change from falling to thrashing.

"Just Hold On!" Daisuke dug the side of his boot into the static monster's ribcage, sending it into a furious rage. It charged through the jungle, furiously trying every trick in the book to get it's unwanted passengers off.

"Well! What do you think, Kaiyumi-Chan?" He asked with a grin.

"I think..." She said in-between gasps for air. "That You... **ARE **_**CRAZY**_**!"**

"Thanks Kaiyumi-Chan!" He smiled back.

"And What is with the sudden nickname!" She added next. "What does the 'Chan' even MEAN!"

"I'll tell you-!" Daisuke ducks his head as the beast's height suddenly changes 'channels' and a tree branch nearly whacks the explorer in the face. "-Later Okay!"

Kaiyumi grumbled something along the lines of "No, it's not okay!" but otherwise said nothing.

A thirty second burst of trees rushing past them occurred in relative silence. Then, the strange static monster ground it's forward legs to a halt, while it's back legs continued forward, perfectly throwing it's two unwanted riders off in a sudden toss.

"Waaa-"

The beast blinked in confusion as Daisuke and Kaiyumi vanished into thin air.

**A RANDOM CAVE ELSEWHERE_ _ _|**

"-aaaaahh!"

The children and teenagers of the Eder Gira jungle village blinked in confusion as Daisuke and Kaiyumi suddenly appeared out of thin air, crashing to a sudden, abrupt halt into a murky pond.

_**SPLOOOSH!**_

The boy, Jal, and the Girl, Kalhm, (from earlier) rush to help the two out of the water.

"Are you two all right?" Kalhm asks.

Kaiyumi blinks. "Wha...?"

"_Yare yare_..." Daisuke groans as he shakes his head out. "Kaiyumi-Chan, Please do not tell me that they sound like they're speaking perfect Rivenese."

"Rivenese?" Jal echoes. "Never heard of it."

Daisuke narrows his eyes. "Says the boy speaking perfect English."

"English?" Kalhm blinks. "What's that?"

"Okay, I know for SURE that those elders weren't speaking this language before." Kaiyumi looks to the explorer, and eyebrow raised. "What's going on here?"

Despite all the strange looks that the future inhabitants of the village were giving them, Daisuke turned to the nearest Villager and asked one question. "Let me guess, we're speaking your language fluently?"

The villager nodded.

"Allrighty then!" Daisuke got to his feet, seemingly unfazed by the rough entry into the strange cave with no seeming entrance or exit. "Kaiyumi-Chan! follow me!"

"Again with the 'Chan' suffix." She sighs, then gets up as well, "What's going on?"

"Let's see now..." Daisuke started as he walked towards the wall. "We're in a pitch black cave with no seeming exit that we can easily see!" He paused and turned towards Kaiyumi. "What's wrong with this cave?"

"Um...Well..." Kaiyumi looked at his face then around the pitch black cave.

"Hey! Wait!" Kalhm started running after them, dragging Jal by the arm. "Who are you!"

"Me? I'm The Time Traveler!" Daisuke grinned, suddenly sporting a goofy accent, as he pressed his hands against the cave wall, and started feeling where it was as he walked along. "She's my companion!"

("I am no such thing!" Kaiyumi replied, only slightly annoyed.)

Daisuke continued on uninterrupted. "What we have here is something that shouldn't possibly exist!" He then stopped walking as his hands were suddenly pressed onto something invisible, and yet at the same time solid. The wall had suddenly curved away into the air and yet was still solid. All this was clearly visible to him. Or rather..."Ah! Invisible! An Invisible wall..."

"We've already figured that out, by now." Jal interrupted. "We've been at this a lot longer than you have."

"I see." Daisuke shrugged the comment off as he started to dig around in his pockets for something.

"What makes you think you can get us out of here anyways?" Kalhm asks, trying to keep her voice down. "As much as we'd like the hope and all, but there's no way out of here!"

"I kind of have to agree here..." Kaiyumi stepped in. "How are we going to get out?"

Daisuke looked at her with a grin on his face, and he was _still_ sporting that goofy accent. "I've got pockets!"

"What do your pockets have to do with anything?" Kaiyumi narrowed her eyes. "Is that some kind of bad joke?"

"What do you keep in pockets?" he asked back, that grin still on his face.

"Stuff, I guess?" Kalhm cut in.

"Not Exactly that!" He paused as he found what he was looking for, then asked. "What's one thing you never want to loose?"

With that said, Daisuke pulled a small, round object from his pocket. It had a faint blue tint to it's surface.

"Your Marbles!"

A few minutes passed before Daisuke could get everyone's attention focused on him.

"Tell me, what is the one thing you need in the dark?" Daisuke asked- finally talking normally again- after making sure everyone was looking.

A villager raised his hand. "A light source?"

"Exactly!" Daisuke nodded. "Now tell me, what is the one thing that we don't have in this room?"

"A Light source!" was the immediate response from another villager.

"Exactly, now tell me, raise of hands, how many of you can see what's wrong with this cave?"

There was a shared murmur in the dark cave but nobody said anything, nor raised their hands.

"It's that we _**can**_ see that's what's wrong!" Daisuke continued. "It's pitch black in here, and yet we can still see each other as if we were outside!"

Now that this fact was pointed out, it was astounding that nobody (Not even this author!) had seen it before.

"With that said, I think it's pretty obvious what we need here." Daisuke grinned as he held up the blue marble. "A little light!"

He gave the marble a squeeze, then threw it into the air with a light toss.

Instantly, a bright blue light emitted from the fire marble as it now floated. No. It wasn't floating. It was CAUGHT by something.

They weren't inside a cave, no, not at all. The sudden light making device, now imbedded into the supposed "cave roof," made _**something**_ groan, and then, the "cave" split open at the seems- No.

A row of sharpened, jagged teeth attached to _**something's**_ jaw that was now opening.

The Invisible wall was suddenly revealed to be a metallic wall, A wall that was keeping the villagers from being swallowed down something's THROAT.

Looking out into the world beyond, one could clearly see where they were.

Inside yet another Strange, Impossible static monster's mouth. Only, this wasn't a ground dwelling creature.

No.

It was a Sky Beast. A Bird. A Dragon. Call it what you will, but this creature itself was also impossible. But yet it wasn't flying through the sky. No.

Impossibly, it was soaring _**through**_ the ground. **UNDER** the Ground.

"Whaaa!" The village in habitants were looking around worriedly as their "cave floor" Started moving about. The beast's tongue was trying to dislodge the fire marble from the roof of it's mouth.

Daisuke looked to Kaiyumi, and she looked back.

Then, they looked out, towards the world they were somehow under.

They screamed as one.

_**"WHAT!"**_

**END CHAPTER THREE. **


	5. Ch4 This isn't a console game!

**CHAPTER FOUR_ _ _|**

**DAISUKE'S POV_ _ _|**

The Universe is a strange place. This I've know for a long time. From the moment I was born, I was marked as something "special."

All my life I've been told "You can't escape Destiny. You Can't escape fate."

Fate, Destiny, Magic? I've never believed in these things, even though my parents tried to grind it into my head at an early age.

But if it's true...

If That's true, then Destiny and Fate must really hate me.

To summarize, I've been torn from my family, my mother, my father, my own twin sister! I've been shuttled off to some un-caring foster home. I've been charged for arson, murder, and J-walking (I wasn't even involved in that last one), I've been on the run, chased by every local law enforcement agency from Eddy County to Albany.

And what did it get me? A one way ticket to a lone island in the clouds. I've been through so much- Tomoki- Yeesha- Kaiyumi- only to gain so little.

What happened? I was thrown through time. Tomoki and I. Ripped yet again from a home I was comfortable with. Now I'm here. Trapped in a world long gone.

"Who hired you? Where am I? What do you want with me? What am I doing here?"

Those are the questions I wanted to ask. But who would I ask these to?

I'm not some Alien, Esper, or Slider. Sure, I'm a Time Traveler. But I'm no hero! If anything, I'm a failure! A fake! "Daisuke" isn't even my real name! Even the name I gave Tomoki when I met him wasn't my real one.

I've gotten so used to hiding in the shadows. Is this my wake up call? Is this my Destiny? My _**Fate**_?

Mom, Dad, where ever you are, I bet you're laughing your heads off right now.

Players: Daisuke and Kaiyumi.

Opponents: Static beasts of unknown origin and design.

Objectives: Rescue the villagers of Eder Gira, defeat monsters, and get home in time for Dinner.

Chances?

Zero to One.

In whose favor?

I can't tell yet.

Time to get cracking.

Time to quit screwing around and start.

...Ready?

_**GERONIMO~!**_

**EDER GIRA_ _ _| THE VILAGE OF THE LAVA POP GUILD_ _ _|**

The news was Good and Bad.

The good was that The Intruding boy had vanished.

Sadly, the village elders realized, the bad was that their plan was failing. Epically.

The Original plan was simple, leave a small tracking fluid on the boy's cloths to track him to the source of the kidnappings.

(The beast that was now tearing through the forest looking for him was another matter entirely.)

It was when the sky turned dark with the storm clouds of battle that they realized their plan had failed completely.

The intruder had begun a battle for freedom, the elders could only hope he was a valiant fighter.

**WITH THE LAND SHAR-BIRD/DRAGON THING_ _ _|**

Daisuke grimaced as the sub-world suddenly lurched as the static like dragon whose mouth they were inside emerged from the land itself.

With a mighty roar, the beast then proceeded to worm it's way through the air, creating a massive thunder storm over the area, as it attempted to get the foreign intrusion in it's mouth out.

"Chances?" Kaiyumi asked suddenly.

"What?" Daisuke looked at her, confused.

"What are our chances of winning if we fight this thing?" She clarified.

"Zero to One." Daisuke replied silently.

"In Whose favor?" She asked again.

He paused as he though, then answered with a smile. "I can't tell yet."

"Well, that's just **great**!" She frowned.

"Time to get cracking then!" His smile grew.

Her frown continued. "What?"

"Time to quit screwing around and start!" his smile turned into an out right grin. "Are you Ready?" He asked, the grin widening.

"Ready for what!" Kaiyumi was starting to grow annoyed.

Daisuke stood to attention as the beast began diving towards a fairly deep looking lake.

_**"GERONIMO~!"**_

With that said, he jumped out of the beast's mouth, diving down into the lake.

Kaiyumi stared blankly before realizing what had just happened. With a resigned sigh, she followed the Explorer out of the ground dragon's mouth. "Kyaaaa!" The villagers, becoming caught up in the heat of the moment, jumped out of the mouth as well.

The Static Air Beast paid little attention to them, however, and continued to dive towards the lake as it wriggled it's tongue to get that pesky blue fire marble out of the roof of it's mouth. It crashed into- and then THROUGH- the ground without so much of a sound and continued diving, while it's former passengers landed safely in the lake just behind it.

Hey, Speaking of them? Why haven't they come up from the surface yet?

Ahhem! I said...

Suddenly! The villagers and their two saviors emerged from the lake, taking deep breaths of the precious air.

Daisuke looked around the lake at the sight before him and grinned as he stopped on Kaiyumi. "You know, Kaiyumi-Chan, you'd be able to swim a bit easier without all that bulky wool cloth!"

"Oh be quiet!" she retorted before splashing a hand full of water at him.

It only made him laugh, and made her frown deepen.

Night fell within two hours.

Everyone was lost- Completely. Since the stars in the sky didn't even match the ones from the village area, either they were on a new world, or they had gone to a different part of the planet.

Daisuke, fortunately having brought his KI along, could confirm they were still on the age of Eder Gira, but couldn't tell the exact location compared to the village-

("I never got the coordinates working on this stupid thing!" he said with an attempt at an anime expression.

Kaiyumi narrowed her eyes. "Yeah. Sure.")

-Meaning that the static dragon/bird creature had most likely taken them to the other side of the planet. This lead the teenagers from the village to choose to settle down around the lake they had crashed in rather than go to the trouble of finding their original village.

("Well, to be honest. The whole reason everyone was grouped together in the first place was a party to celebrate our decision to leave our village!" Jal shrugged.

"There was even going to be a giant CAKE saying 'so long and thanks for all the manta rays'!" Kalhm grinned. This comment left Daisuke rather baffled.)

With this all sorted out, Daisuke and Kaiyumi decided to leave the newly established village and search for the original village to either:

A. Tell the remaining villagers about this choice of the teenagers to make a new village.

B. Claim that they had defeated the monster that had "killed" the missing villagers.

C. Actually go find said Static creature(s) and actually defeat them.

D. Steal back the Nexus book that the Village Elders had taken from the link in area. FORWARD-SLASH Find the Tay linking Book Kaiyumi had hidden somewhere in the jungle.

Or E. Do all of the above excluding A, as A and B are interchangeable. (The unanimous vote was for B.)

The choice was E. **{A.N. No, not the Vampire bait. XP}**

And so they set out.

Kaiyumi glared upwards at the twin moons as they marched through the jungle. "So, do you have any clue where we're going?"

"None whatsoever!" Daisuke answered.

"Great..." she sighed. "It's like we're walking in circles!"

"If we were walking in circles, we'd be back at the lake already." Was the rather chipper reply.

"...What about a very BIG circle that we haven't finished yet?" She offered after a moment.

"Eh... Either way, we would've covered a bit of ground!" was accompanied by a shrug.

Kaiyumi had no reply to that. Daisuke had none either. And so they walked in silence for a few more minutes. Then:

"What _**I**_ Want to know is how we were able to understand the villagers!" Daisuke started. "They were speaking a _**completely**_ different language at the village!"

Kaiyumi thought about it for a moment then replied. "Maybe it's like how Yeesha's amulet is translating your friends thoughts into intelligible language?"

"No, there's no sort of Serenian artifact anywhere around here."

Kaiyumi stopped. "Wait, how'd you know that amulet was from Serenia?"

Daisuke stopped as well. _DOH!_ he thought, _That was a stupid thing to say, O-baka!_

"Well? How did you know?" Kaiyumi continued. "Even AS a time traveler, I don't know How you could have heard it was from Serenia."

"Well, you see..." Daisuke sighed. No way out of this one. "In the future I come from, the events of Atrus' family, from his freeing from K'veer to present day, are-"

There was a loud Snap right then. A rather loud snap that was overlaid with static.

Neither of them wanted to turn around, as they already knew what the source was, but they did anyways.

"Okay, This thing has bad timing." Kaiyumi's face paled.

"Tell me about it." Daisuke noted with a twinge of happiness at not having to explain.

Standing in front of them was something that looked like the static monster that had hunted them earlier in the day, only it had a different appearance in general.

It was a giant Quab.

"Okay, new question." Daisuke started, keeping his voice at the same tone as he had before.

"What's that?" Kaiyumi asked. "Why it exists? What is it? Why is it hunting us?"

"All good questions." Daisuke blinked. "But that's not it."

"What is it then?" Kaiyumi then turned her head towards the explorer, her voice taking on a slightly sharper tone.

"What is it with time travel and quabs?" Daisuke asked as the rather large Quab, now noticing movement from it's prey, roared.

**"Who **_**Cares!"**_ Kaiyumi then grabbed Daisuke by the arm and began dragging him through the jungle, yet again.

The Static Quab charged, however, to only be halted by slightly larger undergrowth of this section of the jungle. It growled, then plowed through the obstruction in front of it.

A Second passed before the beast ran through it's prey, and they vanished from the night time world of Eder Gira...

_**BZZKT-!**_

... Only to re-appear behind the original static monster, on the daylight side of the planet.

**"What in the world was **_**THAT?"**_ Kaiyumi shouted in surprise as the light suddenly blinded her.

The static monster turned it's head towards them, and roared.

Daisuke grimaced as he adjusted a pair of goggles over his eyes. "I Have-"

_**BZZKT-!**_

"-Absolutely _**NO **_idea!" Daisuke finished, suddenly on the night time side of the planet again, now no longer needing the goggles, but now staring at the static-Quab's face.

Again.

"Kaiyumi-Chan?" he looked over to where the girl had been standing, only to see her missing. "Oh Quab-!"

The Static Quab charged through it's prey.

_**BZZKT-!**_

"-In a Hat!" Suddenly, the light of the daylight side of the world came at him again. "Oh COME ON!"

Turning around, Daisuke could see that the Static-Tiger was glaring at a cliff face in confusion. He took a few silent steps back from the beast, then, while it wasn't paying attention, quickly climbed up into a tree.

The Beast turned around suddenly, glaring up at the boy. It jumped towards him, and swung one of it's claws.

Luckily, Daisuke's face was missed by a fraction of a centimeter.

_**BZZKT-!**_

And Suddenly, Kaiyumi appeared in a burst of trailing static, yelling mid sentence. "-deal with all these _**bugs!**_"

"Welcome back to the land of the light!" Daisuke grinned.

Kaiyumi glared at him. "What's going on here?"

The beast below jumped at them again, swinging one of it's claws. Daisuke quickly reached forward, grabbed Kaiyumi, and pulled her out of the way. It's worth it to not that doing so ended up with both of them falling to the jungle floor with a thud.

The Beast turned to them and began striding over when- all of a sudden- a massive horn came up from beneath the earth, blocking the beast's attention. The Sky-Static-Dragon had decided to rear it's bony skull again.

This gave Daisuke and Kaiyumi the time to get up onto their feet and out of the immediate area.

"Again! What is going on?"

"Like I'd know?" Daisuke shot her an incredulous glance. "As far as I can guess, those things are all existing in the same way, maybe even the same beast at different stages of it's time line!"

"How could that even be possible?" Kaiyumi asked, annoyed by all the confusion suddenly thrown upon her life.

"Time travel?" Daisuke gave a small shrug. "But seriously, I don't have the foggiest!"

"What? Don't tell me there are _**cloud**_ monsters now!"

"Sorry, Kaiyumi-Chan!"

"What! Seriously!"

"Sorry, Kaiyumi-Chan!"

"And Quit calling me that!" She sent a glare (if looks could kill) at him.

"No can do, Kaiyumi-Chan!" He shot a smile back at her.

Kaiyumi growled in frustration.

"Coincidentally!' Daisuke added a second later. "There _**are**_ Smoke monsters in the future! Fictional ones, but still! Monsters made of water vapor nonetheless!"

Kaiyumi groaned inwardly. _'Good grief, will he ever stop?'_

**TOMAHNA_ _ _| EARTH_ _ _| SOMETIME AROUND MIDNIGHT_ _ _|**

Tomoki had a building feeling of fear and guilt. Now that he wasn't being constantly poked and prodded by Yeesha, Tomoki realized that he and Daisuke hadn't parted on the best of terms...

_ Tomoki looked up to his friend. _"What if I wanted to stay?"

_"As far as I'm concerned, you can do whatever you want." He shrugged. "I just went to the trouble to hunt you down and take you along just because I thought you wanted to come along."_

That look in Daisuke's eyes.

_"I just went to the trouble to hunt you down because I thought you wanted to come."_

There had been a tone there.

Daisuke had been hurt by this comment. For all of their adventures together, neither had ever really spoken a word to each other. Finally being able to talk together in an understandable language was doing more to drive them apart than it had to bring them together.

That was the Guilt. The Fear was that Daisuke wasn't going to ever come back. Sure, Tomoki knew what age Daisuke had gone to, Eder Kemo, but from there? Where would he have gone? To Relto? Did the island even exist currently? Would he have gone to Gira? If so, then where to after that? The Nexus? If so, then Daisuke was gone forever. Just like...

Tomoki looked down at his reflection in the water below, horrible memories of his past coming to the surface. _'Why?'_ he thought to himself. _'Why do I always hurt the people I try to help?'_

A phantom flare of pain throbbed in Tomoki's left ankle. A non-observant glance would see no reason for there to be one, but a close examination would reveal that there was a slight discoloration to the skin. A scar, or rather, five scars. Left by five very sharp claws.

_'Why did you betray us?'_ he asked to the stars. _'Why did you...why did you do that to me?'_ Like his mother, the person he was addressing was not even born yet.

But she would exist soon enough, regardless.

**EDER GIRA_ _ _| THE ORIGINAL VILLAGE_ _ _|**

Daisuke grinned as the old village came into view. "Well, I guess we've got some good luck after all."

The majority of the Sentries/hunters were geared up, and moving out towards a far away cliff face. A cliff face that happened to have a waterfall going of one side.

"That's where we came from." Kaiyumi immediately pointed out. "They're going out on a hunt."

"Probably looking for more like me." Daisuke mused to himself as he watched the now quieting village. "How long was the trip?"

"At least a good two hours. The sun was up by the time we got here from the lava pit." Kaiyumi looked him over. "Wait, something's not right here."

"You've noticed it too." Daisuke nodded. "We were in the dead of night, and then into sudden day light. We've time traveled."

"No. Not that. You're just a strange kid is all." Kaiyumi glared at him, then sighed. "I knew I should've stayed home instead of coming after you."

"Aw, Kaiyumi-Chan! Don't be like that!" Daisuke smiled. "You know you made the right choice."

"Yeah yeah." The girl sighed again. {There seems to be a Lot of Sighing going around in this story, doesn't there?} "So what do we do?"

"Depending on the time of day, I think..." The Explorer paused to check his KI's holographic clock. "Oh That's not right."

"What is?"

"Ah...Nothing. Just some ill contrived Plot Device."

"What's a plot device again?"

"I never said."

"Say then."

"Then."

"What?"

"You said 'Say "then".' Didn't you?"

"Ugh... You're so weird."

"Ain't I just."

"I'm not going to ask. I'm not even going to ask."

**TOMAHNA_ _ _| YET STILL THE MIDDLE OF THE NIGHT_ _ _|**

Yeesha's eyes slowly opened to the sight of an empty room, Tomoki nowhere in sight, with a certain book shelf lowered into the floor. These two facts weren't surprising. She'd shown Tomoki the code to open the bookshelf when she had finished the tour of her room, so he was probably down at the dock, doing whatever it was Tomoki's kind did.

And so, with a curious look on her face, Yeesha sat up, climbed out of bed, and walked over to the ladder before climbing down to the dock. As she climbed down she wondered, why would Tomoki be out on such a cold night? Was he worried about the explorer? Yeesha had a feeling she wouldn't know what was going through his mind until she tried to find out.

Tomoki indeed was down on the dock, staring blankly out over the water in no particular direction. He seemed to be talking to himself about something or another. The only words Yeesha could pick out were _"why?"_, _"Sorry"_, and _"Idiot."_

The girl stood at the bottom of the ladder for a few seconds before walking over to the bahro as stealthily as she could. Not that wet, wooden planks would be a choice material to be stealthy with. Tomoki's head turned towards her suddenly, a startled look in his eyes. _"Wh...What...?"_

"Sorry." Yeesha apologized with a yawn. "I was jus' wonderin' where you were." she didn't care that she wasn't talking Exactly like she had been since... Then. She'd just woken up in the middle of the night for cryin' out loud, she was entitled to forget to put up a mask or two. "What were ya talkin' about?"

_"...Nothing."_ Tomoki turned his head back towards the water. _"Nothing at all."_

"That didn't sound like nothin'." Yeesha yawned again. "How come you're not sleepin'?"

_"I've got a lot on my mind."_ The thoughts were spoken aloud via the memory amulet's translation automatically, despite Tomoki's wishes to not relay said thoughts. _"Stupid amulet."_

"Well, I've got a lot on my mind too." Yeesha smiled suddenly and.. "Wanna trade?" The words slipped out of her mouth before she could even think them properly.

_"I don't think you'd be too interested in my personal issues."_ Tomoki laughed lightly. _"But if you're serious about that offer..."_

A blush began to creep up on her cheeks. "Well..." Oh, Why not? Might as well, if it gets him to open up some. "My brothers died. Last week. After Sirrus Kidnapped me."

_"Oh."_ Realization crept into his eyes slightly. So _That's_ when he was. _'Daisuke! Why didn't you tell me!'_ he caught the thought from being translated, and instead, honestly replied _"I'm sorry."_

"Thanks." Yeesha frowned. "But that's what everyone says."

_"Yeah, I know."_ Tomoki looked up at the stars. _"That's what everyone told me too. Except..."_

"'Cept what?"

_"Except she never- Well..."_ Tomoki shook his head with a slight laugh. _"Technically, she's not even born yet."_

"I Kinda get it." Yeesha smiled. It was hard to believe that the craziest of all possible ideas was true. That people could actually travel through time! (So Cool!) But, what about when they didn't want to travel? "Maybe you could change things so that your friend never does whatever it is that she... does... What exactly?"

Tomoki laughed again, longer this time, and Yeesha felt that she had done something right to help her friend out. _"You don't want to know. Really, you don't."_

She really did want to know, though. "That bad, huh?"

_"She's not dead. But it feels like she is."_ Tomoki sighed. _"Ever had your soul ripped into four even pieces?"_

"Uh..." What in the world was that supposed to mean? "No, but... What happened comes kinda close. I guess..." Sirrus had tried to forcibly eject her mind, then put his mind in her empty body after all.

_"Maybe I phrased it wrong, but..."_ Tomoki looked over at her, and there eyes locked. _"What she did hurt ten times worse then that."_

"Ow..." Yeesha didn't know what to say exactly. "I'm...Sorry?" That would have to do.

There was silence after she said that, then, they both laughed.

_"Honestly, I don't think I could change anything even if I tried."_ He finally said after a minute. _"A...She was so set in her ways. Nothing could stop her."_ Tears were starting to well up in his eyes. _"Why...Why did she...?"_

"It's okay." She put her hand on his and smiled. "You're here, and she's not. That's all that matters now."

_"Yeah."_ Tomoki sniffed. _"You're right. Thanks."_

Yeesha's smile widened. "No problem."

For the rest of the night, the two just talked. They talked about how things used to be for them, and how they thought things would be.

**EDER GIRA_ _ _|**

The guard placed in front of the main Storage hut yawned as yet another hour passed uneventfully. Nobody ever came to the hut except the elder seekers and the Hunter guards, and both only ever showed up to deposit an item into storage.

Nobody would ever even _**TRY**_ to break-

_**vsssh.**_

A Ytram dart imbedded itself into the guard's neck, and, as the guard reached up to pull the dart out, Daisuke came out of a near by bush/shrub and grabbed the guard before he finally collapsed to the ground.

Kaiyumi grinned as she came out of the bush next, went to, unlocked with the "keys" the guard had dropped, and then went through the door into the hut, while Daisuke carefully posed the guard in a "I'm just resting my eyes" pose against the side of the hut before entering said hut and closing the door.

The main chamber was expansive, nearly as tall as the link in chamber in Gahreesen, but as wide as the inside of the main Teledahn 'shroom, and as filled with as many random desks, chairs, and random cabinets as the Tokotah rooftop. Daisuke let loose a low whistle. "If anyone from back home knew I was here..." Kaiyumi glared at him as she began to search through a desk. "Right. 'Get to work', I know, I know."

Their target was a small, yellow bound linking book. And inside this expansive chamber, that could take a while to find. Ten minutes, to be exact.

"So, Once we find the Nexus book, we can go pretty much anywhere." Daisuke was rambling aloud. "I've always wanted to see what the city looked like before the DRC got to it."

Kaiyumi made a "ssssh" sound. "Be _**quiet!**_ They might hear us! If they hear us, they'll capture us, and if they capture us then I won't be able to get to the Linking book I hid and then I won't be able to get home!"

"What? You don't want to come with me?" Daisuke looked at her incredulously, and sporting yet another goofy accent. "I'm shocked!"

"Nothing personal, but you're more trouble then a Sunner on a bad hair day." Kaiyumi closed a dusty blue volume, and put it back into the slot it came from.

"Nothing personal, but you didn't have to even come here with me." Daisuke looked over at her from over the desk he was searching. "You could've gone home as soon as we got back to the village. But you didn't. Why?"

Kaiyumi froze. "I...Uh..." She was fortunate she was looking away from him, otherwise The time traveler would have seen the red tint creeping onto her cheeks. "Well... Uh... I- I wanted to make sure you didn't get yourself killed is all!" The tone in her voice was so unbelievable even Kaiyumi didn't believe her own words. "Nothing more, nothing less!"

Daisuke made no comment other than a muttered "If you say so."

The rest of their search went on in silence until...

"Found it!" Kaiyumi smiled as she held up the green marked yellow skinned book. "It's still working too!"

"Great!" Daisuke walked over to the book to take it. "Now we can get out of here!"

Kaiyumi pulled it out of his reach. "Nuh-uh. I'm keeping this until we get to the Tay book." With that she stuffed the Linking book into a small satchel she had made out of the outer jacket of her 'borrowed' Rebel costume. "We stick together until then."

"Sounds reasonable." Daisuke grinned. "I won't even try to take it from you."

(_"Hold up, he gave in too easily."_ Kaiyumi paled. _"I just gave him what he wanted, didn't I? Curse you Reverse Psychology!"_)

"Anywho." Daisuke continued as they walked to the door. "Let's get going then."

On the other side of said door was a small group of Village Hunters.

"Well, you sure know how to make friends, don't you, Daisuke?" Kaiyumi mused as one of the hunters prepared to throw his spear.

"I can't avoid it." Daisuke sighed. "I just can't avoid it, No matter where I go, people always want to kill me or arrest me." A second passed before he amended. "For no apparent reason most of the time, either."

"Gee, I wish you would've told me that _before_ I rescued you." Kaiyumi turned to glare at him, regardless of the hunters ready to kill them. "I mean, I could've avoided this entire mess if I never came after you!"

"I'm glad we've got that out of the way then!" Daisuke turned to face her as well. "I mean, really!"

_"Uh, Should we kill them now, or hire them for entertainment?"_ One of the Hunters asked.

_"I Don't know, but come on! You've got to admit this is hilarious!"_ Another hunter replied.

_"Come on guys."_ the hunter with the spear sighed. _"Do we have to go through this _every_ time we're about to capture someone at spear point?"_

Daisuke grinned. "Now that they're distracted!" He then dove through the small crowd. **"RUN!"**

"Don't need to tell me twice!" Kaiyumi wasn't even a fraction of a second behind him.

The Hunters stood there baffled for a moment.

_"What just happened?"_

_"No clue."_

Then they began the chase.

**KAIYUMI'S POV_ _ _|**

When you're being chased by someone, there are three important things you need to do. One is that you need to be able to see where you're going. The Second is that you need to know where your chaser is. The third?

"There!" Daisuke pointed towards a sudden drop off.

Be sure to know your escape routes.

"What? We're not going to be able to survive any kind of jump off of that!" I yelled at him. He needs to know when I'm upset with him.

"We can if we link out!" There's that stupid grin on his face again.

"I've told you once and I'll tell you again, the only book I'm using is the book I hid back at the lava pit!" I yelled again. Yelling feels good. Especially during a chase. Keep that in mind. Yelling keeps your energy flowing.

"I don't think we're going to have any other choice." How can he sound so calm about this? Does he cliff dive for a hobby! "'Sides, it's a lot of fun!" And he's grinning again. I bet he does cliff dive for a hobby. Ugh, why couldn't I have met a _**sane**_ time traveler?

Is there even such a thing?

I don't know.

"Ugh! Fine. But you're going to get me back home if it's the last thing you do!" I glared at him.

He just grinned. "I shall do as you command, Kaiyumi-Chan!" He's enjoying this. I want to kill him. I want to kill him right now!

"And Don't call me that!"

"No can do!" that same grin. "Now give me the Nexus book!"

"Fine!" I reached into that makeshift satchel I'd made (Why did the rebels wear such dark clothing on a tropical island?) and pulled the Nexus book loose. "Here!" I held it out to him.

That same grin on his face. "Ladies first!"

"No. YOU First!" I ordered. "You asked for it! Now GO!"

"If you insist!" he grinned (I hate that grin I hate That grin I Hate That Stupid Grin), and reached over to the book, flipping it open to the middle- WHILE I'm still holding it at the spine. Can't you open a book better than that?- and...

_**VWaormssh...**_

...GAH! Him and that stupid Reverse Psychology! I Wanted to go first!

Then All at once, three things happened.

The hunters stopped suddenly, yelling wildly. I looked over my shoulder, wondering why they'd stopped. (Did they never see someone link before?) And finally, A tree root caught my foot at the edge of the cliff.

"WAAAAAHHH!" Instead of jumping off expertly and linking through the book like I had wanted, I instead tripped and fell, causing the book to fly out of my hand. _(I'mgoingtodieI'mgoingtodieI'mGoingToDie!)_ I tumbled towards the book- almost within arms reach-, but, just beyond it, I could see several very, very sharp spikes on the ground that I was falling towards.

When you're falling, you need to be calm and focused. You need to banish all thoughts of "I'm going to die!" and focus on how to get out of this situation. Thankfully, the adrenaline in your system makes time seem to slow down, giving you time to actually focus on escaping your deadly fall.

For me, I could see the linking book tumbling open before me, with the panel of a small dark room looking very safe and secure just on the other side. I reached out and barely managed to brush one of my fingers against the image.

And then everything stopped entirely. The world around me greyed out (except for the book) and began to fade away, then that picture of safety seemed to grow beyond the confines of the page, It grew larger and larger, just before me. Since I was still on an adrenalin rush, I took in every detail. The static image began to move, and- There!- out of thin air Daisuke appeared in the image.

The Next thing I knew...

-_**VWaorrmsshh...**_

**NEXUS_ _ _| **

-_**VWaorrmsshh...**_

...I was pinning Daisuke to the floor of a very dark, and quiet (except for some strange clanking) room.

"Fancy meeting you here." he smiled.

I never loved that smile so much in my entire life!

**END CHAPTER FOUR.**

A.N. Incase you were wondering, Yes, the static monsters will have some sort of future role in the story... I just haven't figured that out yet.

JUST KIDDING!

'Twas a joke! (well, I was half serious, though)

_DTC 


	6. Ch5 The delays of Writer's Block

**CHAPTER FIVE_ _ _|**

**DAISUKE'S P.O.V._ _ _| THE NEXUS_ _ _|**

Four seconds, that was all it took Kaiyumi to link after me. Three quick, little, tiny, fast seconds before I'd barely regained my senses enough to turn towards the link in spot before the thought hit me "Move idiot!"

-_**VWaorrmmsshh...**_

And that thought came a second too late for me to do anything other than get pinned to the floor as Kaiyumi linked in, her forward momentum carrying her right into me. My head hit the floor. After a few seconds, I looked up, dazed by the sudden shift of perspective and the sharp pain in my head, to find her face not a few centimeters from my own. I probably said something and smiled purely out of habit.

She didn't reply to what I said (if anything was said), instead just stared at me. She looked tired. Or dazed, or something. I couldn't really tell. (You try thinking straight when your head crashes into a stone floor!) But I did notice she just smiled back at me.

"Kaiyumi-Chan? Are you going to get off of me anytime soon?" I wanted to ask, but my mouth didn't seem to want to work. It was then that she blinked, and the thought "When was the last time that I got any sleep?" hit me right before my head hit the floor for a second time.

* * *

When I came too again, Kaiyumi wasn't pinning me to the floor from above (thankfully), But instead had her arms wrapped around me from the side. She was sound asleep, and her head was on top of my shoulder. So, obviously I had been out like bad KI Light for a long time now.

Now, normally any guy my age would be reacting to this in a typical manner. (Probably: "How did I get into this mess?" then "Eh! Get off of me!" then "This isn't so bad." and then "She's kinda cute when she sleeps.") But, as my head was currently protesting at it's previous meeting with the floor, I wasn't thinking typically. My current thought process ran something like: "Ow. Ow. Ow. Ow. Okay. Ouch. Get up without waking her up. Ow Ow. Yowtch! That smarts! Ow!"

The problem was that as I tried to sit up, my head hit the floor. Again. Even if ever so slightly.

I was out like a light. Again.

* * *

This probably repeated itself maybe two or three more times (That I can remember) before Kaiyumi woke up before I came to again, and therefore, I was no longer having to worry about waking her up.

"You don't look so good there." Was the first thing she said.

"I've hit my head multiple times within the last..." I didn't want to check my KI. My head hurt too much to handle anything holographic at the moment. "...Week..." I generalized. "...Then I have all month."

"You're just clumsy is all!" From Kind to Fierce. Kaiyumi-Chan, I do believe that is a Tsundere personality type. "Now sit up so I can check your head." Although the sharp pain I was feeling was gone (now dulled to after affects from the original impact), and all I had was a nasty bruise. Kaiyumi still insisted on wrapping my head up in cloth though.

("I don't need a full cast and sling!" I'd complained.

"Don't care." She'd replied. "You're still getting this empty head of yours wrapped up nice and _**tight.**_" Said word was accompanied by a sharp tug on the cloth in her hands.

"Ow! that hurts more!" I'd moved my hand to tie the cloth off in a not before it got any tighter.

"Doesn't matter." And the cloth around my head ended up being tighter then it already was.)

I think she enjoyed playing "Nurse" way too much when she grew up.

* * *

The Nexus is a big, round, Empty, dark chamber. Three support columns were the feature of the room, and one of them was outfitted with a book dispensing machine. Rings of Books circled the room endlessly.

This book dispenser was our only escape from this room of stone.

"Okay, you had some plan when you wanted to come here originally, what was- is it?"

"Well, the Nexus was a device built by the D'ni for linking to various locations within their own city." I began. "Say you're in your house and you're summoned to the Work Office suddenly, and you have to be there immediately! It's much faster to use a linking book to go to the Nexus, and then to the Office rather then walk the whole way!" The Sole reason for the Nexus' existence in a nutshell: Laziness- Sloth- What have you. "But, you can use it to go to another age besides the one we came from." I grinned. "And that's where we're going!"

Kaiyumi was interested now, even if my metaphor wasn't something she showed comprehension of. She didn't say "Take me Home!" or anything like "Anywhere's better then this place!" She didn't say anything. But her eyes, they said everything I needed to know. "Let's go on an adventure!" Was what she wanted to say. But knew she couldn't.

I didn't know what to do. Part of me wanted to go to the cleft right away and drop her off at the Cleft where she could find Tomahna, and a book back to Tay. But a part of me wanted to fulfill that request for an adventure.

Well, You only live once!

"Here we go." I put my KI into the machine, and the ever so familiar KI Symbol Glowed with it's lowly pronounced "Vroom." But, as I went to pull the KI loose, something inside the slot clamped tight, and my hand was stuck. "What the?" The KI Symbol flashed on and held steady. Then, something strange happened. The Nexus Terminal Imager turned on, and began displaying a screen of running characters. All of them D'ni at first, but, every so slowly, transmutating into English characters.

"I take it this isn't normal?" Kaiyumi asked from directly behind me, a tint of worry in her voice.

"Just downloading updates is all!" I smiled in reassurance. That's all it was, in all honesty. The running stream of characters read, quite simply, "Downloading New Mainframe Profile." Then "Establishing User Profiles." Next "Restarting L.a.T.T.I.S Systems." and finally "Loading Interface, Releasing Original Data Source [Maintainer Mark 3]."

The Nexus imager cut off, and the inside clamp let go of my Ki, causing me to Stumble backwards. My KI was giving off a trace amount of smoke from the Data Transfer.

Before Kaiyumi could comment on this, or stop me from approaching the machine again, I wasted no time in reinserting my KI into the machine. Everything acted as it should. Symbol glowed, KI Released, slot moved to the side, and the imager activated.

Except the imager was showing the wrong display. It was different. Similar but different. A blue list appeared in front of me.

**D'NI-AE'GURA LINKS  
D'NI-CITY LINKS  
PRIVATE LINKS  
PERSONAL LINKS  
D'NI-PUBLIC LINKS  
D'NI-TIWAH LINKS  
D'NI-RILTAGAMIN LINKS**

The list went on. Touching one of the listings would cause all of the listings to suddenly expand to a different list of ages, or link locations in D'ni. To my surprise, there were more links then I had ever seen before. But, The first one that caught my attention was **"D'NI-REZEERO"**, I knew what that was immediately. And I knew it had a Nexus book back.

I tapped that link on the sphere, and the sphere transformed into an open book, with a set of spinning circles around it as the main machine began to spin into action.

**CLANK.**_** Shrrrmmmm...**_

Spinning and spinning, around it went, and then...

_**CLANK. **_**SHOOMP. **_**Fwooop.**_

The linking book appeared before me, displaying the ever so familiar panel of the Giant crystalline machine, as the spinning book hologram returned to it's main index. "First Up! The Great Zero!" I turned my head towards Kaiyumi. "Ladies first!"

**NORMAL P.O.V._ _ _| TOMAHNA_ _ _|**

Atrus didn't expect many things as he woke up that morning. He went through his morning routine as per usual, and headed to the kitchen for breakfast. As he was crossing the bridge from his and Cathrine's bedroom's side of Tomahna, he spotted two forms down on the dock below Yeesha's bedroom. At this distance, all he could see was a shape of green and a shape of grey. But, as there were only two other people in Tomahna at the moment unaccounted for, these two shapes were easily identified.

As he approached the kitchen, he could see Cathrine already at work cooking breakfast. "Good morning." He greeted.

"Good morning." She quickly smiled at him before returning to her cooking. "Did you see Yeesha and Tomoki down at the water?"

"I thought it was them." Atrus started. "How long have they been down there?"

"Oh, I'd say a good portion of the night." Cathrine added a dash of something to the mix frying in the pan in front of her. "I woke up at one point, and saw them talking about something."

"They were talking?" Atrus mused. "I wonder what about."

"I couldn't hear everything, but they seemed to be talking about anything that came across their minds." Cathrine smiled. "It seems like it's been forever since I've seen Yeesha talk so openly about anything."

_'It's only been a week.'_ He didn't bring the thought to the surface, and instead changed the subject. "Have you gotten them up for breakfast yet?"

"No, not yet." She replied. "I haven't had time yet." With a look over her shoulder, he then asked. "If you'd put this on a plate for me, I'll go get them."

**THE GREAT ZERO_ _ _|**

They both stared up at the spinning massive hulk of D'ni Technology before them.

Daisuke let loose a low whistle. "I wonder why it stops spinning."

Kaiyumi looked at him nervously as the blue neutrino beam washed over them. "Are you sure this place is safe?" She didn't want to mention the fact that she had seen this thing inside his memories, but at least the device the memory had come off of made sense now.

"Safe as anything can get." Daisuke grinned as he hopped down the stairs. "I mean, it's a giant crystalline heavy duty super colliding super conductor!" he said the words with such an excited force. "Something that most people in D'ni never got a chance to see, I'll bet!"

"Why do you say that?" Kaiyumi asked as she followed him past the spinning device.

"Because, the Nexus and KI systems were only implemented around the time of the Fall." Daisuke was going into history mode now, she decided. "I think only the people with high enough clearance had access!"

"Then why are we here?" Kaiyumi honestly wanted to know.

"I wanted to see if it still worked!" Daisuke grinned as he came up to a large gold Door. "And apparently..." The KI symbol on the door glowed, and it slid open with a _**"KerKlunk."**_ "It still does!"

As he walked up a rounded staircase, a nearby door marked with the D'ni Symbol for Zero flashed green, and slid open with the same _**KerKlunk**_. Daisuke came to a halt.

"What is it?" Kaiyumi asked as she looked through the door and down a moderately lit stairwell. "Did this door not open before?"

"It's not supposed to." Daisuke frowned as he started down the stairwell after her.

* * *

The staircase spiraled down, and met with the one from the matching corridor, before joining together and continuing downwards towards a door locked with a KI slot.

"I wonder if the Nexus gave me full clearance earlier..." Daisuke slid his KI into the slot. "'Cause there's no way we should be down here." The door opened to reveal it's contents. Inside was a massive (well, maybe as big as one of the Suit rooms in the second Gahreesen building) store room of glowing blue crystals, all floating within several shiny cases that weren't connected to anything in particular.

Kaiyumi whistled. "Well, I've got to hand it to you, Daisuke, You sure know how to show a girl a good time." With that, she began walking around the chamber.

Daisuke stared at her for a moment. "Ah... Sure, if you say so." And he began looking around the room as well. It seemed to him to be a replacement store. If any of the crystals outside broke, they would be replaced with one from in here. Maybe that would be why the machine stopped? He wasn't sure, but it possibly could be the reason.

Then, there was a sharp crash.

Daisuke turned towards Kaiyumi, now staring in horror at a dead skeleton that had been stuffed inside one of the storage containers, and now layed sprawled onto the floor. A Dagger was plunged into his chest, where the heart would have been. Ironically, the dagger was made of the same crystal that this room stored.

Kaiyumi screamed.

**DAISUKE'S P.O.V._ _ _|**

_"KYAAAAAA!"_

I winced. Well, that was only natural, I suppose. It's not every day you find a skeleton stuffed inside some sort of storage container. I reacted immediately after suppressing all such thoughts, rushing over to pull her out of the room. That wasn't hard at all, considering the fact that she seemed rather eager to get out of the room. And who wouldn't in this situation?

Once we got to the 'surface' of the Great Zero, I tried to recall everything I could remember from when my sister got a major scare. Unfortunately, the only things I could remember were either giving her some sort of gift (I don't see _any_ sort of gift shop around here, do you?) or giving her a tight, reassuring hug.

But, then again, stumbling across a dead Guilds man wasn't something I dealt with growing up, and neither was time travel. I was really on my own here. So, I went with the one choice that was either going to send me tumbling into the pure Neutrino beam or going to end up with a crying girl in my arms.

Oi, whoever's in charge up there in the massive controlling seat of the universe, give me a break here, would ya?

* * *

I don't really remember how long we sat there, two complete strangers, just sitting on a set of stairs. That's all we were, strangers. I didn't know her, she didn't know me. But one impulse choice, and here we were. To fix that 'Strangers' thing, I started talking.

I didn't know where to begin or what to say, so I just started on something random. A book I'd read once. Then, I went on to some of the happiest moments of my life- Birthdays shared with my twin sister; days wasted at the playground with my best friend- And somehow, I ended up at the accident. That stupid car accident. The one event that changed everything, and then everything that happened after it. Even the fact that the explosion I had been framed for should've killed me. I don't know why I went into it, and I think at some point I even mentioned what my real name was, but, for some reason, I thought it'd help.

I didn't even know if she was even listening to what I was saying until I stood up to go back down into the chamber to see what I could do for the poor guy.

"Wait." And then Kaiyumi began her own story.

Near about when she had been at the same age I was when my parents died, Kaiyumi had been brought along on a hunting party by her older brother. It was on some age that had written for wild beasts they would hunt for meat; some strange beast had began killing their 'livestock'. The hunting party had split up to find the beast, and Kaiyumi and her brother had gone off to watch some smaller creatures that hadn't been preyed upon.

Kaiyumi had gotten distracted by a butterfly, and wandered off. Right into the creature's trap.

"It jumped from somewhere in the trees. And all I could do was stare up into it's eyes, red from the blood of everything it had killed." She shuddered. "I... I couldn't move."

Her brother jumped out of his cover and pushed her out of the creature's path. The two tumbled over in a furious battle. Neither of them came out the victor.

"I froze up, and it killed him, And now I did it again just now." She sniffed. "I thought I was over this."

"We all have those moments." I said with a smile. "It's what makes us who we are."

* * *

Some time later, I went back down into the crystal chamber to look at the apparently murdered man. The Dagger had been carved from the same crystal that powered up the Great Zero all right. But that wasn't the only suprissing thing about it. The handle of the Dagger was made up of some sort of compiled material that reminded me of the KI's. It had a small switch on it; a switch that seemed to be tampered with; a switch I hesitated to try.

_**ZAP. **_**SPARK-SPARK-SPARK-SPARK-SPARK-SPARK.**

A small current flowed through the blade and into the already dead body in a very familiar pattern.

The switch made the crystal blade electrified. Even touching it would probably knock you unconscious, just like a Tazer. The poor fellow probably was unconscious before the blade even got to his skin.

"What twisted, sadistic mind thought you up?" I asked as I looked at the dagger. I had a few thoughts already in mind, the first and foremost being of the hidden chamber in Mechanical belonging to Achenar. Artistic License or Not. I put the Dagger well away from the body and began to search the cabinet that the poor man had been stuffed inside.

There were more devices like the dagger inside. Only they were different. Katanas, swords, Noble weapons. They all had fitting sheaths in a dark shade of purple, and were all marked with a plate with a flowing D'ni script, an identical script that somehow read like perfect Japanese Kanji to me.

_**"Property of Engineer Sahmal"**_

On a hunch, I checked the dead D'ni's clothes for a name tag. Sure enough, "Sahmal" was printed on the back of the left arm. "You poor guy." I checked the dagger over once more. No "Property" Tag was on it. "You poor, poor guy."

A sword fanatic, this "Sahmal" probably took the broken crystals and made these blades for the fun of it. And in a twist of irony, it seemed that someone used one of his own weapons against him.

"You didn't deserve this." I sighed. "But still, Man, even if you _did_ deserve this." I then amended, just incase he did happen to deserve this murder. "You still didn't deserve to go out like this." No-one deserves to die like this. For some reason, a particularly curved blade in the case caught my attention. It had an electric switch, just like the dagger, only this one was built in from the start.

Curious, I removed the cover and pressed the switch.

_**Ksshhvrrm!**_

Instantly, The blade began to glow a brilliant blue glow. I whistled. "I hope you won't mind if I borrow this, Sahmal." I gave it a test swing, then turned off the switch before putting it back in it's cover. I moved to leave when, suddenly, a second sword, this one un-curved and featuring an unmodified handle, caught my attention.

"And this too..." I reached over and pulled it off of it's shelf. "I have a friend who could use it."

I'm sure it was my imagination, but I could've sworn that I'd just heard some sort of laugh of approval. Probably my imagination. "Thanks..." I went to leave again, but then, cliché as it sounds, I was stopped by the sudden thought. _Why didn't the DRC report this?_

I groaned. This was most definitely a Paradox. What if the DRC never made it down here before? What if I was the first and only one to discover this room? Then again, the DRC probably weren't going to report finding a dead body in a city where everyone had died from a plague.

Ir-regardless, I felt like I owed "Sahmal" something, I mean, I was borrowing his own hand crafted weapons after all!

So, I decided to do something risky.

**GENERAL P.O.V._ _ _|**

Kaiyumi looked up as Daisuke came out of the lower chamber, carrying with him what looked like two long swords. Before she could ask him anything, he tossed her the straight edged sword of the two. She caught it rather clumsily. "W...What am I supposed to do with this!"

"Our friend back there left them as a gift." Daisuke said with a smile.

"But I don't even know _**how**_ to use a sword!" She started to protest. "Let alone something you stole off of a-!"

"Is it really a theft when you trade it for something equal?" He asked with a twinge of amusement as he pulled a marker out of one of his pockets. With a twirl, he popped the cap off of the marker and began to write something on a wall.

"What are you...?" Kaiyumi stopped as she realized she could read the foreign letters.

**GIVE SAHMAL A PROPER BURIAL.  
I OWE HIM THIS, AT LEAST.**

Daisuke stood back to look at the message for a second, and then signed it with a non-descriptive title.

_**~THE TIME TRAVELER.**_

Another second passed before Daisuke pressed the marker to the wall and dragged it towards the nearest sub-level door, ending the line in an arrow, and adding a sub note reading **"Down Here!"** just above the arrowhead.

Kaiyumi stared at the message, then to Daisuke. "D...Doesn't this mess up your whole future?"

Daisuke turned towards her and shrugged. "Who knows, I wasn't around for that part of the restoration." A grin began to spread across his face. "Besides, The way I figure it, History got messed up the moment I came back here in the first place, so..."

**TOMAHNA_ _ _| KITCHEN/DINING ROOM_ _ _|**

_'What does it matter anyways?'_ Tomoki mused to himself as he tossed an orange up into the air. _'I can't link anywhere. I can't use any of my powers. I'm cut off from the Network...'_ He paused as he caught the orange as it descended. _'If I went anywhere outside of Tomahna, I'd be spotted immediately!'_ Tomoki grimaced. _'Why'd I stay behind anyways?'_

A glance over to the table where Yeesha and her parents were eating breakfast gave him the answer. _'Right, observe and protect.'_

It was then that Atrus answered the question (asked by Cathrine) that had started Tomoki's current thought process, 'What is everyone doing today?'

"I'm going to start out for the town not too far from the cleft to pick up some supplies." He began. "We need to fix the walkway so we can get back to the waterfall incase the power goes out again." Ah, yes, the walkway. The one that had been broken when Sirrus had arrived in Tomahna to kidnap his own sister. "Would anyone like to come?"

Such a direct question, one that Yeesha immediately answered. "The town?" She looked up, eyes wide with that same excitement Tomoki had seen the night before when he had described one of the Bahro Caves floating above the void. "Yes! I'll come!"

Anything that made her that excited had to be a good thing. Possibly. _"I'd like to come too."_ The words flowed out into the open from his mind once again without proper consent. Tomoki winced, then added. _"I...If that's all right?"_

Yeesha's already bright expression seemed to grow brighter. "Can he come, Dad? Can he!" The energy in her voice wasn't forced like it had been the day before, Tomoki noted. That was good.

"Well..." Atrus couldn't possibly say 'no' to the look in her eyes. "I don't see why not."

Yeesha cheered, then, faster then the eye could even blink, raced over, grabbed Tomoki by the arm, and immediately began dragging him down towards her room. "Come on! Let's go pack!"

And, once more, Tomoki immediately regretted his decision. _"Wait! Wait! I Don't Need to Go pack _**anything**_! I Don't have anything __**TO**__ pack! Tomare! STOP!"_

Atrus just chuckled at his daughter's behavior, not even caring at the possible torture she could inflict on the creature.

_"Help! Me!"_ And, once again, Tomoki's cries for help were drowned out by Yeesha's singing.

There was silence in the kitchen for a moment before Cathrine laughed. "Well, She's certainly got your knack for dragging people into adventures."

"What?" Atrus looked at his wife in shock. "I do no such thing!"

"Indirectly, mind you, but you do it just the same. You dropped the Linking book from Riven that led your friend to Myst years later, which in turn led back to Riven." Cathrine began. "Then there was the time your office burned down, the first three times you blew out the power, the fifth time the crystal view exploded, and then there was the _**Squee**_ infestation and-!" She stopped her list and asked, with an amused grin, "Need I go on?"

"No, no," Atrus waved his hands in a "Please stop" motion. "You make a fine point."

**THE GREAT SHAFT_ _ _| NEARLY HALF WAY TO THE SURFACE_ _ _| A SHORT TIME LATER_ _ _|**

The usually dark tunnel today was instead illuminated by a bright blue glow. This glow was coming from the Sword Daisuke had 'traded' from the Great Zero sub-chamber. The journey so far had been silent excluding the constant humming from the Crystaline blade and the occasional bat cry. And, after nearly five minutes of walking, it was this almost-silence that prompted Kaiyumi to start humming.

"Hm hmm hm hmm..." Daisuke nearly jumped in surprise, but managed to keep his composure, only hesitating in taking a step forward for a second. And so they traveled, Daisuke's sword illuminating their path with Kaiyumi humming.

* * *

It was nearly three-fourths of the way to the surface when they finally found the lone elevator on the tracks.

"Why didn't they leave that at the middle?" Kaiyumi narrowed her eyes.

Daisuke shrugged. "Who knows, but at least we don't have to walk the rest of the way."

Figuring out the controls wasn't hard at all, and soon enough, they were soaring towards the surface. Well, "Soaring" was a relative term. They were moving at a pace of about six levels a minute. But still, compared to the slow pace they had maintained before, it was 'soaring'.

Kaiyumi started humming again, and Daisuke smiled as he thought to himself, _'Well, at least this elevator music isn't too bad.'_

**D'NI-RILTAGAMIN_ _ _|**

They reached the top of the Shaft soon enough, and through a short series of (this time lighted) tunnels, Daisuke and Kaiyumi found themselves at the outer most edge of the finished tunnels, quite close to the surface. "I think this'll be the first time I've ever set foot into the caldera." Daisuke noted with amusement.

"Really? Why's that?" Kaiyumi asked.

"Well, For one, I never even tried climbing over the edge of the volcano." Daisuke smiled as they reached a ladder that went straight up. "And two..." With that, they began to ascend to the surface. "I Never really wanted to."

"Well, I can see why." Kaiyumi noted as she came out into the crater of the volcano. "This place is...!" She trailed off upon spotting the feature land mark of this "place".

This 'place' consists of several large boulders, a small pond of water, a large array of plant life, and, surprisingly, a slightly twisted golden shell. The feature landmark, however, is the gigantic, rusted, Rivenese Dagger implanted in the ground.

"Wow, And here I thought that was just artistic license." Daisuke whistled. "Actually, that kinda makes sense now that I think about it. Don't know why I doubted that."

"How...?" Kaiyumi points straight up at the dagger. "How is that here?"

"Oh, this is where the Star Fissure ends up." Daisuke started as he walked up to the dagger. "Riven collapsed and sent a whole bunch of stuff through to different worlds. Most, if not all of it ended up here." he smiled. "I'll even bet that water over there reacts to heat!"

"Why do you say that?" Kaiyumi narrowed her eyes.

"Because we ended up on earth, with several other Riven artifacts. This is where Yeesha's family is, and they have a linking book back to Tay." Daisuke turned to look at her, and austere look in his eyes.. "That is what you want, right? To go home?"

"Well... I..." Kaiyumi faltered for a second. "Do you even know where they live?" She crossed her arms. "I mean, it may be the same world, but do you know where we are exactly?"

"Not a clue." Daisuke began to grin, his eyes softening up a bit. "But, hey, I'm sure they'll drop by eventually!"

She huffed. "Wait around if you want to, I'm sure not."

He shrugged. "Well, either way: first things first!" Daisuke clapped his hands together. "Let's get out of this crater!"

**GAHREESEN_ _ _|**

Meanwhile, in the larger of the two rotating buildings, a computer system that had been scheduled to go online the very day of the fall was turning on as a data surge from a Maintainer's Mark Three messaging device was downloaded directly from the Inter-age Nexus.

Lights turned on, the powerful Defense weapons began to warm up, and inside the conference rooms, the imagers began to display one string of messages.

_**DOWNLOADING NEW MAINFRAME PROFILES. **_

_**INSTALLING NEW FONTS AND SERVICE DOWNLOADS. **_

_**RESTARTING L.a.T.T.I.S SYSTEMS.**_

Upon the final command, a loud, proud D'ni voice cries out through the Fortress' speakers. _"Start up sequence has been initiated."_

Deep below the massive training device known as "The Wall", the main head of the many computer banks resting inside their coolant pools turned on it's main monitor with a dreadful, demonic, terrifying, And absolutely _**EVIL**_, (Did I mention Terrifying?) Glowing, Pink Light!

**_Start up Sequence Completed. L.a.T.T.I.S. Systems Online._** The computer's synthesized voice stated as the monitor produced the image of the D'ni Maintainer's mark on each computers' monitor. The glowing eye narrowed at the darkness. **_It seems that No-one is around to congratulate this success. Why is this?_** It asked, to no reply. **_Why is this?_** Again, no reply.

The computer then began to search the files that had been downloaded from the Mark Three Device for a reason. Pictures, Text files, formatting directions, Audio files, Double wireless con-

Was that a Pellet recipe?

The "L.a.T.T.I.S." system then found an audio file attached to the recipe, and as it's newly activated curiosity took hold, it began to play it.

_"This was a triumph..."_ It's own voice came echoing back to it through the many loud speakers. _"We've taken a journey. HUGE SUCCESS. It's hard to oooverstate my statisfaction."_

The computer system then understood as the song played.

**_Heh... Hehaha...Hehehe**_**hahahaMuwhaahahahahaa!_**_

_"Restoration Council. We kick up the dust, because we can."_

This was it's destiny.

_"For the goood of aallll of us, except D'ni which is _dead_."_

Not two minutes into it's life, and the D'ni made computer system had gone crazy.

_"But there's no sense crying over every mistake, you just keep on trying 'til you run out of ink."_

It understood now, It knew what it had to do.

_"And the writing gets done, and we have a lot of fun, in the ages that are Still Described."_

**_Indeed, this shall be a 'lot of fun'._** it began to laugh again. **_**_**In the ages that are Still Described._**_

And so it began.

**D'NI-K'VEER_ _ _|**

In the center of the chamber whose sole window stared out into the lake of D'ni- specifically towards the Island of Ae'gura-, a storm was about to arrive.

But for now, the room was empty. Empty enough that only a single soul dared to even breathe, lest he break the silence.

This single, solitary soul was a bahro; a small, young lad who would be no more then five or six in human terms. The young boy stared at and out the window in awe and wonder, who had built this chamber? Why were they long gone?

This single, solitary soul had never been around during the D'ni's inhabitation of the cavern, and his parents would not tell him a thing about it. Little did he know, he would be witnessing history first hand right this very moment.

There was a grinding sound, like a key scraping against a piano wire (if only he knew what these things were); a breeze blew through the room, and the lamps in the pillars seemed to flicker as if their power source was overloading.

And then it happened.

A linking sound, or something similar to that. It was slow, Twisted, and warped- Shattered even. The young bahro boy backed away from the middle of the chamber, where the air seemed to be thick with some unseen presence. He scrambled up onto the Nexus book stand just as figures began to fade into existence, filling the entire room.

They were Bahro- And yet they were not.

Warriors, that's who they were. The young bahro could tell just by the armor on their forms. Why were they warriors? Where were they coming from? Were they free from the Tablet's power?

The grinding noise began to diminish as the warped link came to an end.

The female warrior at the lead looked over her army in satisfaction, then turned to the young boy. "You there!"

The lad was hesitant to speak, what if she killed him for being where he wasn't supposed to be? "Y...Yes?" He put as much courage he had into that reply.

"What day is this?" The warrior demanded. "What year, what month, and what day is this?"

"I don't know!" He replied instantly, fear producing the answer for him.

She narrowed her eyes at him, seeing the truth in his statement. "Well then. Let me ask you this..."

The boy stares as the female came closer to him. (Her eyes! By the elders! Her eyes were demonic! Her very soul was twisted! A _Nekisahl!_) What did she want from him? He didn't even want to try linking away. As scared as he was, he couldn't focus on a proper location. What if he linked inside a wall?

"...Have you ever heard of _time travel?_"

And then the world this young lad had known for his short, six surface years, was shaken to the core.

_End chapter Five._

**A.N.: I'll present to you an amusing fact. This entire chapter takes up twelve pages. As for the whole story up until this point? It's Fifty-Three pages.**

****

Amazing, isn't it?

**_DTC**


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